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Mr. Bell on the motions of the eye, &c. 
we shall not see the pupil nor the dark part of the eye, as we 
should were he awake, for the cornea is turned upwards 
under the upper eye-lid. If a person be fainting, as insensi- 
bility comes over him the eyes cease to have speculation ; 
that is they want direction, and are vacant, and presently the 
white part of the eye is disclosed by the revolving of the eye- 
ball upwards. So it is on the approach of death ; for, although 
the eye-lids be open, the pupils are in part hid, being turned 
up with a seeming agony, which however is the mark of 
encreasing insensibility. 
It will now be admitted that the variety of motions to 
which the eye is subjected, require the complication of 
muscles which we find in the orbit, and it must be obvious to 
the most casual observer, that unless these various offices and 
different conditions of the eye be considered, it will be in vain 
to attempt an accurate classification of the muscles of the 
orbit. 
Of the actions of the muscles of the eye, and their natural 
classification. 
The muscles attached to the eye-ball are in two classes, 
the recti and obliqui. The recti muscles are four in number, 
and come from the bottom of the orbit, and run a straight 
course forwards and outwards ; they embrace the eye-ball, 
and are inserted at four cardinal points into it. The obliqui are 
two muscles having a direction backwards and outwards ;* 
* We may say so, for although the superior oblique muscle comes from the 
back of the orbit, yet, by passing through the trochlea, it has a course backwards 
and outwards to its insertion. 
