160 EXPRESSION OF SUFFERING: Chap. VI. 



being impeded. It is, therefore, certain that both the 

 arteries and the veins of the eye are more or less dis- 

 tended during violent expiration. The evidence in de- 

 tail may be found in Professor Donders' valuable me- 

 moir. "We see the effects on the veins of the head, in 

 their prominence, and in the purple colour of the face 

 of a man who coughs violently from being half choked. 

 I may mention, on the same authority, that the whole 

 eye certainly advances a little during each violent ex- 

 piration. This is due to the dilatation of the retro-ocular 

 vessels, and might have been expected from the intimate 

 connection of the eye and brain; the brain being known 

 to rise and fall with each respiration, when a portion of 

 the skull has been removed; and as may be seen along 

 the unclosed sutures of infants' heads. This also, I pre- 

 sume, is the reason that the eyes of a strangled man ap- 

 pear as if they were starting from their sockets. 



With respect to the protection of the eye during vio- 

 lent expiratory efforts by the pressure of the eyelids, Pro- 

 fessor Donders concludes from his various observations 

 that this action certainly limits or entirely removes the 

 dilatation of the vessels. 16 At such times, he adds, we 



16 



Prof. Donders remarks (ibid. p. 28), that, "After 

 injury to the eye, after operations, and in some forms 

 of internal inflammation, we attach great value to the 

 uniform support of the closed eyelids, and we increase 

 this in many instances by the application of a bandage. 

 In both cases we carefully endeavour to avoid great ex- 

 piratory pressure, the disadvantage of which is well known." 

 Mr. Bowman informs me that in the excessive photo- 

 phobia, accompanying" what is called scrofulous ophthal- 

 mia in children, when the light is so very painful that 

 during weeks or months it is constantly excluded by the 

 most forcible closure of the lids, he has often been 

 struck on opening the lids by the paleness of the eye, 

 — not an unnatural paleness, but an absence of the red- 

 ness that might have been expected when the surface 

 is somewhat inflamed, as is then usually the case; and 

 this paleness he is inclined to attribute to the forcible 

 closure of the eyelids. 



