40 



motion?, and can with ease direct itself as occasion 

 requires. 



No less commodious is the situation of the eye : 

 in the most eminent part of the body, and near the 

 most sensible part, the brain. By its eminence in the 

 body, it can take in the more objects, and by its 

 situation in tlie head, besides its nearness to the brain 

 it is most conveniently placed for defence and seciu 

 rity. In the hand it might have been more ready for 

 service : but to how many dangers would it have been 

 exposed I The same may be said, as to its site iu 

 any other part but where it is. But the head is a part 

 that seems contrived and made chiefly for the use of 

 the principal senses. 



Some odd circumstances relative to the eyes, are 

 related by a physician in the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions. 



u A person had no visible disease in his eyes, yet 

 could not see, unless he squeezed his nose with his 

 fingers, or saddled it with narrow spectacles, and then 

 he saw very well. 



a A maid, 23 years old, could see very well, but 

 no colour besides white or black. She ceuld some* 

 times in the greatest darkness, see to read almost a 

 quarter of an hour. 



< ; A sadler's daughter had an imposthume, which 

 broke in the corner of her eyes, and out of it there 

 came about thirty stones, as big as small pearls. 



" A young man in Suffolk, about twenty years of 

 age, has all the day a clear and strong sight. But 

 when twilight comes, he is quite blind, nor can he 

 see any thing at all, either by lire-light or candle- 

 light. No glasses give him any help. He has been 

 thus, ever since he can remember. This cloudiness 

 comes gradually upon him, like a mist, as day- light 

 declines. It is just the kame, both in summer and 

 winter, and at all times of the moon. 



" When I was about sixty my sight was so decay. 

 ed ? that I could not distinguish men from women. L 



