Cursory notes on the morbid eye / by Robert Hull.

Hull, Robert, active 1840.

Date:: 1840

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cursory notes on the morbid eye / by Robert Hull. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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light, distinguish life from death. Not all animals possess these. In man alone the eyes are variously colored : in other animals each genus displayeth its peculiar color. Some horses are wall-eyed ; but man displays an endless variety and difference. Large eyes, moderate, little ; prominent, which are deemed to be duller: deep-seated, which are counted very sharp- sighted ; as also are those, which in their color resem- ble the eye of the goat. Besides: some eyes perceive distant objects ; others none, unless they are near. The vision of some is proportioned to the solar light, seeing nothing in a cloudy day nor after sunset. Some by day are dimmer, by night unusually perceptive. The gray-eyed — caesii—see more clearly in the dark. It is narrated of Tiberius Csesar, and of no other mortal man, that, awaking in the night, by de- grees he could distinguish every object, as well as in a clear light; the darkness by degrees again return- ing. Of the divine Augustus the eyes were glaucous, like the horse's, and of super-human whiteness and size. But his anger was aroused, if they were looked at with curiosity. Those of Claudius Csesar display- ed at their angles a fleshy whiteness, which was occa- sionally suffused with bloody veins. Those of Cains were particularly staring. Those of Nero, unless connivent, were dim as to perception of near objects. There were in a show of Prince Caius twenty pairs of gladiators ; among these only two combatants, who did not wink at any menace, and were conse- quently unvanquished. So difficult is it for a man to accomplish this. Incessant nictation is natural to some folks, whom we look on as rather chicken-