118 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



state of uncertainty, and, I may add, of anxiety, for this 

 last supposition was by no means an agreeable one, I set 

 myself down to examine the phenomenon experimentally. 

 I found that the image varied its place by the motion of the 

 head and of the eyeball, which proved that it was either 

 attached to the eyeball or occupied a place where it was 

 affected by that motion. Upon inclining the candle at 

 different angles the image suffered corresponding variations 

 of position. In order to determine the exact place of the 

 reflecting substance, I now took an opaque circular body 

 and held it between the eye and the candle till it eclipsed 

 the mysterious image. By bringing the body nearer and 

 nearer the eyeball till its shadow became sufficiently 

 distinct to be seen, it was easy to determine the locality 

 of the reflector, because the shadow of the opaque body 

 must fall upon it whenever the image of the candle was 

 eclipsed. In this way I ascertained that the reflecting 

 body was in the upper eyelash, and I found that, in con- 

 sequence of being disturbed, it had twice changed its 

 inclination, so as to represent a vertical candle in the 

 horizontal position B, and afterwards in the inverted 

 position C. Still, however, I sought for it in vain, and 

 even with the aid of a magnifier I could not discover it. 

 At last, however, Mrs. B., who possesses the perfect vision 

 of short-sighted persons, discovered, after repeated exami- 

 nations, between two eyelashes, a minute speck, which, 

 upon being removed with great difficulty, turned out to be a 

 chip of red wax not above the hundredth part of an inch 

 in diameter, and having its surface so perfectly flat and 

 so highly polished that I could see in it the same image 

 of the candle, by placing it extremely near the eye. This 

 chip of wax had no doubt received its flatness and its 

 polish from the surface of a seal, and had started into my 

 eye when breaking the seal of a letter. 



That this reflecting substance was the cause of the 



