The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-28
FIoTIoNs ABOUT THE EYE.
Current Nonsense About Pictures on
the Retina.

the RetiRa.
From the Philadelphia Medical Journal.
Nonsense science about the eye seems
to be possessed of the proverbial nine
lives of the mythical cat. However abb
surd. however, frequently disproved, the
stories reappear with a perunacious vi
taliJy and regularity that is inexplicable
OF no other organ are these popular su-
perstitions and fallacies SO prevalent \
brief review of a few may prove inter
estiEg;
Nonsense No. 1.-For centuries novelists
and story-telers have been utilizing the
tale of the image of the murderer photo
graphed upon or in the eye of the muir
dered man. In the last years two novel
lists have repeated 1t, and In the news
papers il often pops up with comic in
nocency and solemnity. According to
variant a. the spectator PUSHES to the
corpse and sees the image ON the coruea,
or on the iris variant requires deep
gazing into the Interior of the eye TO
see it; in variant c the photographer is re-
quired to develop it, in variant the
picture is on the retina and dissection is
needed 10 reveal Il to the uaked-eye vis-
ion of Che bystander; or, lastly, according
to variant e, only the photographer or the
microscope will show the reUnal photo
graph. OF course, no image can be formed
on or in the Cornea or on the iris if the
laws of optics are true, and without an
OpEthalmoscope no eye except that of the
novelist could see the retiua, and if by
death there were an image fixed there
(Which there Is noO, it could not he seen
by another eve aided or not by the arts OF
dissection, photography or microscopy.
Nonsense No. "A novel has recently
been issued from the press of a New York
publishing house, for which the profess
.ftn
ity to the pseudoscience which. somewhat
like the nonsense photography mentioned.
has a fairNlike ability 10 revive af-er
death. The plot of the novel turns on the
absurdity that the brain cells have the
power to retain impressions like a photo
graphic plate. We remember to have see1
a cOmicaly grave account of the brain
of the chess player in which the micro
scope showed numerous chessboards In
its texture. somewhere.
Nonsense No. 3.-Even i'm the most Sc
rous of newspapers (perhaps also in some
medical tournais) there mas been lately APP
nearing a grave scientific explanation of
the snakes seen by patients with delirium
tremens. This consists in the fact that
some oculist has reported the retinal YES
sells in the disease to be increased in size
and tortuOsity. A Jump is then made
to the suppostion that the snakes are the
images of those tortuous and overhll2d
are invisible except by a little device Of
which the drunkard knows nothing.
Nonsense No. 4-Pseudoscienuhc persons
are fond of rediscovering the old bit of
dogmatsm that the eyes, per Sc, have no
expression" i. e., apart from the emo
tons indicated by the rest of the face.
Last year one of the most self-satsfed
essays of one of the most self-sausfed
of English essayists was devoted to show
ing up what she supposed the pitiable fall
lacy of the whole world that the eye
does have power of expressing feeling.
But what an utterly different expression
does mydriasis give not only to the eye,
but to the entire face! Pupilary diane
tiers and mobilities are most sensitively
obedent to the play of the emotions, and
they who do not recognize this must he
strangely inobservant.
Nonsense No. 5-Although any one can
be made to see them SO few, indeed, have
ever observed what the oculists called
muscae that when first they happen to
| catch glimpse of the hlmy dots and
! strings floating across a page or a cloud
| they are frightened. Quacks set great
| store by these black specks" ard treat
| the poor worried patients for months with
medicines and lotions. Muscae have nc
| pathologic significance whatever, unless
perhaps occasionally to the disordereI i'm
| agination of a dpsomaniac.