Dr Esser on the Luminousness of the Eyes. 1G9 



eyes. Late in the evening there appeared itv them a lively yel- 

 lowish brightness, which darted forth in fiery coruscations or 

 globules, from the interior of the eyes. The balls rolled hither 

 and thither^ and frequently ejected rays, at least an inch in length. 

 In these two relatives the light was livehest and strongest after 

 their birth, and during infancy : in their more advanced years 

 the light was strongest when they were in deep meditation ; at 

 this time, also, the oscillation, which they had in common with 

 other albinoes, was liveliest. 



A rather remarkable observation, and similar to the case 

 of the Sachs, is that of Michaelis, who, many years before his 

 death, during the interval between day and night, and during 

 the night itself, observed irradiations of light issuing from his 

 eyes ; sometimes so strong that he could read the smallest print. 

 (Schlichtegroirs Necrolog, des 19. Jahrhunderts, B. 3. s. 837). 



In a boy, who belonged to the Albino variety, I observed a 

 similar case, though not accompanied with irradiation. In this 

 boy, who suffered so much from the dread of light that he never 

 ventured abroad except in twilight, I frequently observed the 

 same fiery eyes, yet were they very different, both in the strength 

 and colour of their light, from the luminous eyes of animals 

 which I had observed, partly from design and partly from acci- 

 dent ; for this boy's eyes might be called glassy rather than lu- 

 minous. Some years ago I was assured by (Hr" Geheimen- 

 rath W), that his sister had often observed the eyes of her chil- 

 dren, who were also albinoes, to be luminous. These last two 

 cases could be traced to rays of light falling on the eyes. 



It now remained for me to search out the cause, which, by 

 means of the incident rays of light, gave rise to the shining ap- 

 pearance in the eyes of human beings and inferior animals. 

 The explanation seemed to me no easy matter, yet, from the be- 

 ginning, I expected to be able to search out the cause of this 

 phenomenon, in a reflection of rays of light penetrating into the 

 eye. The colour of the light, however, and particularly its 

 changes in dogs, appeared to me very difficult to explain, and 

 to be rather at variance with my own opinion. 



To discover the cause of the shining in the eyes of human 

 beings and inferior animals, I came to the resolution of under- 

 taking the extraction of the lens on a cat, from which I antici- 

 pated the best result, in so far as I might, by that means, best 



