Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-01

with the achievement of the optical
prothetician. He is the last resort of
the eyeless one, and although surgery
slaves him off as long as possible-an
artificial pupil. for instance, being made
for patient the other day in the post
graduate hospital, where before the eye
would have had to be removed-his
ministrations are a subject for graft
tude at last, for the glass eye of today,
movable in exact accordance with the
other eye. if certain muscles in the
socket are left intact, and so true to
life that the keenest inspection often
fails to detect it, is a boon to the
afflicted, hiding the repugnance of de-
formity, and thus removing an OBJ
stacle to his success in life.
Only three houses in the United States
make glass eyes, and they are located
in New York city. A large number of
false orbs, however, of an inferior quail
ity come from Thuringia, in the heart
of the romantic Black Forest of Ger
many. Here is the home of the indus
try, and from here comes most of the
glass eyes that the regular optician
keeps in stock. The American maker,
on the other hand, is exporting his
finer goods to every quarter of the
earth, one house alone making 10000
year for export. OF the other eye
making houses in the world there are
five in Paris, three in London and two
in Birmingham, so that here is an in
dustry which, it may be readily seen, is
not overcrowded.
Eye-making was practiced in the
days of the oldest civilizations. There
is authentic record of artificial eyes
that were made in the reign of Ptolemy
IL, who grasped the sceptre in Egypt
in the fourth century before Christ.
Eyes were at first made of metal, either
copper or gold or silver, shaped into
fiat disks and painted to initiate ma
ture. In the days of Ambrose Pare,
the celebrated French surgeon of the
sixteenth century, painted represen-
tation of the whole eye and eyelids was
fastened in front of the orbit and held
in place by a steel spring that fitted
the upper circumference of the head.
Eyes have been made of wax and cell
uloid and vulcanite, and a horse, not
long ago, presented an improved ap-
pearance with an eye of horn. Eyes
were also made of porcelain, when that
came into use, and their effect was de-
cidedly more lifelike.
A Haytian general once upon time
lost an eye in battle with the Spaniards
and sent to Paris for another to re-
place 1t. He received an expensive and
choice specimen from the Paris maker,
but because it contained a suggestion
of yellow, which was the color of the
hated Spaniard, the Haytian soldier
sent it back, swearing he would wear
an eye only that displayed the color
of his country. The Partisan artist
thereupon made him one that sported
the red and green of Hayti, and this
the jealous warrior wore proudly un-
til the day of his death.
False eyes were very expensive in the
early stages of the art. A false eye
ranked with the jewels of persons
possession, and was frequently diverted
from it's proper use to shine as an or
nament upon some part of the person
for which it had not been destined.
AS made today, the cost of false eye
varies from S. to SIS.
The crux of the art of its manufac
ture is in the preparation of the
crystal, which must be carefully tenn
pered by gradual process to resist
heat and cold and the corrosive secre-
tions of the socket for which 1t is in
tended. The crystal is colored va
riously from a blush to yellowish
white, to stimulate the actual cornea in
different stages of youth and age, the
white of the eye showing blue In youth
and yellowing with age. This enamel