THE REASON WHY. 253 



"Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity." 

 HABAKKUK i. 



inhabitant of tho dwelling. Of the structure of the eye itself we will not say 

 much, for the engravings will afford a clearer understanding than a lengthy 

 written description. But we would have you examine the formation of the 

 iris of the living eye, the ring which surrounds the pupil. Hold a light to it, 

 and you w:ll find that the iris will contract and diminish the pupil; withdraw 

 t-ho light, and the iris will relax, and the pupil expand, thus regulating the 

 amount of light. The images of external objects are formed upon the retina of 

 the eye, a thin membrane, spread out upon the extremity of a large nerve, 

 which proceeds immediately to the brain, and forms the tek-graphic cord by 

 which information is given to the niind, of everything visible going on within 

 the range of sight. 



Now, think for a few moments upon the wonderful structure of those windows 

 of the body. Can you fancy, in the walls of your house, a window which 

 protects itself, cleanses itself, and turns in any direction at the mere will of the 

 tenant ; and when that tenant is oppressed by excess of light, draws its own 

 curtain, and gives him ease ; and when he falls asleep, closes its own shutters, 

 and protects itself from the cold and dust of night, and the instant he awakes 

 in the morning, opens, cleanses itself with a fluid which it has prepared during 

 the night, and kept in readiness ; and repeats this routine of duty day after day 

 for half a century, without becoming impaired ? Such, nevertheless, is the 

 wonderful structure of the window of the body the eye. 



In some scientific works that have recently been published, curious investiga- 

 tions have been made known. It has been shown that the eye is impressed 

 momentarily, as a photographic 1 plate is impressed by the rays of the sun. But 

 the photography of the eye has this extraordinary quality that one image 

 passes away, and another takes its place immediately, without confusion or 

 indistinctness. But the most wonderful assertion of all is, that under the 

 excitement of memory these photographic images are restored ; and that when ) 

 " in our mind's eye," we see the image of some dear departed friend, the retina 

 really revives an image which once fell upon its sensitive surface, and which 

 image has been stored up for many years in the sacred portfolio of its 

 affections ! 



Another extraordinary assertion is one which comes supported by a degree of 

 authencity that entitles it to consideration. It is said that the eye of a dead 

 man retains an impression of the last picture that fell upon the faithful retina. 

 Dr. Sandford, of America, examined the eye of a man named Beardley, who had 

 been murdered at Auburn, and he published in the Boston Atlas the following 

 statement : " At first we suggested the saturation of the eye in a weak solution 

 of atrophine, which evidently produced an enlarged state of the pupil. On 

 observing this, we touched the end of the optic nerve with the extract, when tho 

 cyo instantly became protuberant. We now applied a powerful lens, and 

 discovered in the pupil, the rude, wrn-away figure of a man, with a li.ht coat, 

 beside whom was a round stone, standing or suspended in the air, with a small 

 hand e, stuck in the earth. The remainder was debris, evidently lost fro> 

 the destruction of the optic, and its separation from the mother brain. Had we 

 performed the operation when the eye was entire in the socket, with all its 

 powerful connection with the brain, there is not the least doubt but that we 

 should have detected the last idea and impression made ou the mind and eyt. of 

 the unfortunate ff.an. The picture would evidently be entire ; and perhaps we 

 hould have hod tha joutour. or better sfcill, the exact figure of the murder**- 



