( 297 ) 



Considerations regarding the shining of the Eyes of the Cat, and 

 several other Animals. By M. Benedict Prevost. 



Hi VERY body knows that the eyes of the cat shine in the dark. 

 Our domestic cats afford us so frequent opportunities of observ- 

 ing this phenomenon, that it seems peculiar to them ; but there 

 are several other animals which equally present it, and I have 

 seen it in the dog, the sheep, the cow, the horse, the polecat, and 

 even in several serpents, and in some insects, among others in 

 the species of sphynx commonly known by the name of the 

 Death's-head Moth. 



Buffon says that " the eyes of the cat shine in the dark some« 

 what like diamonds, which throw out, during the night, the light 

 with which they were in a manner impregnated during the day."" 

 Valmont de Bomare says, that " the pupil of the cat is during 

 the night still deeply imbued with the light of the day," and 

 some lines lower he adds, " the eyes of the cat are during the 

 night so imbued with light, that they then appear very shin- 

 ing and luminous."*' Spallanzani says that " the eyes of cats, 

 polecats, and several other animals, shine in the dark like two 

 small tapers, and that this light is phosphoric." M. Dessaignes, 

 in his memoir on phosphorescence, which was crowned by the 

 Institute on the 5th April 1809, says that " the eyes of certain 

 animals have the faculty of inflaming, and of appearing like a 

 fire in the dark. 



Thus the most eminent naturalists and philosophers are of 

 one mind with the vulgar in regard to this fact, that the eyes of 

 cats and some other animals shine in the ^dark with a light 

 which is peculiar to them, or with which they have been impreg- 

 nated during the day. I myself, also, was long in the habit of 

 acquiescing in this opinion, taking the matter partly upon the 

 authority of others, and partly observing the phenomenon for 

 myself in the vague way in which every person sometimes ob- 

 serves things, and men of science as well as others ; which would 

 not, however, be productive of great inconveniences, were not 

 more importance attached to the citing such observations than to 

 the making them. " Every body," says Montaigne, " is sub- 

 ject to say foolish things ; the misfortune is to say them curi- 

 ously." 



