Chap. 55.] THE NATUKE OF THE P^PIL. .03 



small as it is, is able to reflect the entire image of a man. 

 This 97 is the reason why most birds, when held in the hand 

 of a person, will more particularly peck at his eyes ; for seeing 

 their own likeness reflected in the pupils, they are attracted to 

 it by what seem to be the objects of their natural affection. 



It is only some few beasts of burden that are subject to 

 maladies of the eyes towards the increase of the moon : but it 

 is man alone that is rescued from blindness by the discharge 

 of the humours 98 that have caused it. Many persons have 

 had their sight restored after being blind for twenty years ; 

 while others, again, have been denied this blessing from their 

 very birth, without there being any blemish in the eyes. Many 

 persons, again, have suddenly lost their sight from no apparent 

 cause, and without any preceding injury. The most learned 

 authors say that there are veins which communicate from the 

 eye to the brain, but I am inclined to think that the communi- 

 cation is with the stomach ; for it is quite certain that a person 

 never loses the eye without feeling sickness at the stomach. It 

 is an important and sacred duty, of high sanction among the 

 Romans, to close 99 the eyes of the dead, and then again to open 

 them when the body is laid on the funeral pile, the usage 

 having taken its rise in the notion of its being improper that 

 the eyes of the dead should be beheld by man, while it is an 

 equally great offence to hide them from the view of heaven. 

 Man is the only living creature the eyes of which are subject 

 to deformities, from which, in fact, arose the family names of 

 " Strabo" 1 and "Peetus." 2 The ancients used to call a man 

 who was born with only one eye, " codes," and " ocella," a 

 person whose eyes were remarkably small. " Luscinus" was 

 the surname given to one who happened to have lost one eye 

 by an accident. 



The eyes of animals that see at night in the dark, cats, for 

 instance, are shining and radiant, so much so, "that it is impos- 

 sible to look upon them ; those of the she-goat, too, and the 

 wolf are resplendent, and emit a light like fire. The eyes of 

 the sea-calf and the hyaena change successively to a thousand 



97 Hardouin with justice douhts the soundness of this alleged reason. 



98 He alludes, probably, to some method of curing cataract; perhaps 

 somewhat similar to that mentioned by him in B. xx. c. 20. 



99 This was done by the nearest relatives. This usage still prevails in 

 this country, the eyelids being pressed down with pieces of gold or silver. 



1 Or "squint-eyed." 2 Or'" cock-eyed." 



