Chap. XII. DILATATION OF THE PUPILS. 303 



concomitant of fear; for it probably never acts under the 

 influence of extreme, prostrating terror. 



Dilatation of the Pupils. — Gratiolet repeatedly in- 

 sists 2i that the pupils are enormously dilated whenever 

 terror is felt. I have no reason to doubt the accuracy 

 of this statement, but have failed to obtain confirmatory 

 evidence, excepting in the one instance before given of 

 an insane woman suffering from great fear. When 

 writers of fiction speak of the eyes being widely dilated, 

 I presume that they refer to the eyelids. Munro's state- 

 ment, 25 that with parrots the iris is affected by the pas- 

 sions, independently of the amount of light, seems to 

 bear on this question; but Professor Donders informs 

 me, that he has often seen movements in the pupils of 

 these birds which he thinks may be related to their power 

 of accommodation to distance, in nearly the same manner 

 as our own pupils contract when our eyes converge for 

 near vision. Gratiolet remarks that the dilated pupils 

 appear as if they were gazing into profound darkness. 

 No doubt the fears of man have often been excited in the 

 dark; but hardly so often or so exclusively, as to account 

 for a fixed and associated habit having thus arisen. It 

 seems more probable, assuming that Gratiolet's state- 

 ment is correct, that the brain is directly affected by 

 the powerful emotion of fear and reacts on the pupils; 

 but Professor Donders informs me that this is an ex- 

 tremely complicated subject. I may add, as possibly 

 throwing light on the subject, that Dr. Fyffe, of Xetley 

 Hospital, has observed in two patients that the pupils 

 were distinctly dilated during the cold stage of an ague 

 fit. Professor Donders has also often seen dilatation 

 of the pupils in incipient faintness. 



24 ' De la Physionomie,' pp. 51, 256, 346. 



25 As quoted in White's ' Gradation in Man,' p. 57. 



