The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-17
Wonders OF the Eye.


The eyc-the organ Of the sight, more
valuable To Us than we can possibly
THINKS placed just where il is needed
for use.
The snail in his she'll not wishing TO
come out till he is able to see what harm
may befall him, has an eye on each of
his .#O horns, so that he can thrust
those out and see if there is any danger,
before he exposes his body.
Those animals that crawl on the
ground. having no special need of look
ing down, but up on the level, have
theirs near the top of the head while
birds that fly high in the air, feeding on
shat they may see and capture below,
not only have it like the telescope, 80
moving one part of it that they can see
objects at great distance, or very near.
Birds that live on fish, in part, being
obliged to 60 under the water for them,
have thin covering that they draw
| over-like rubber coat-t0 keep the
water out of tho eye.
The horse, also. has n similar one, to
clean the eye when dust gets into it, rub
ting 80 quickly over it that you can not
easily see the motion.
The fishes in tic Mammoth Cave,
which is perfectly dark, have no eyes,
simply because they have no use for
them.
The eel, spending his winters 10 the
mud, often boring his way far under the
grassy marshes, has horn-like covering
for the eye, through which he can see, rs
we do through glass, thus protecting the
eye from being scratched by the gravel.
The spider has from eight to fourteen
eyes, not OH the head, but on the forward
part of the back, perhaps that he may
the better see all parts Of his web which
lie 80 skilfuliy makes, rather ornamen-
tai, wonderfully constructed, each thread
of which is sometimes made of four
thousand smaller ones, put together like
our ropes, the principal use Of which is
to entrap flies and other small creatures
on which he lives.
The lobster and the crab have their
eyes at the end of small tubes, which
they can move in various directions, or
make longer or shorter rs they find it
convenient.
The star fish has five eyes at the end of
the points, which give very good sight.
The body is composed mainly of jelly
substance, thick at the center, and is flat
like pan. cake when at rest, but is NOV
ed slowly by bringing the edges together,
LUX q niha VI SuPp WHICH IuOVcS Inc
body along, as tho water is pressed out.
If this singular creature had only two
eyes in one place, he could not see all
around, as his jelly body is too thick.
When he grows old, this jelly is wasted
away, leaving the star plainly to be
seen.
Some of the lower orders of creation
are not satisfied with two eyes only, but
have them by the thousands. What
seems to be an eye, on each side of the
head of the fly, very large, is compound
eye, having four thousand facets or
eyes, each one of which is q perfect eye,
but not movable like ours. This ;E Ike
q pepper. boz. the small eyes correspond.
ing with the holes in the cover. The fly
has also three in the front of the head,
in all making 5000 eyes just for one
small creature. But there are other crea.
lures still richer in sight. The horse. fly
has 5000, the butterfly $4,000, the drag;
on fly $4,000, the beetle $4,000. It 10
not strange, therefore, that ii. Is not easy
to approach any of these creatures with.
out being seen, since every one of these
eyes is pointing in different direction
like q pistol. If these creatures we're
compelled to wear gold.bowed glasses for
each eye, what an enormous sum Of mon.
ey it would take to buy the supply.