Page:Language of the Eye.djvu/32

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16
THE LANGUAGE

be considered fanciful, but we concur in the opinion that the limbs or members of the body are repeated in the ocular muscles and sclerotic or bony ring; indeed, these muscles move the eye, similar to a motion by the hand. The sclerotic corresponds to the corium; the cornea to the digital unguis, or finger-nail; the choroid coat is the respiratory system of the eye, as the lungs are to the body; the iris may be compared to the larynx; the pupil to the glottis—its expansion and contraction is respiratory; the choroid coat encloses a mass,—the lens,—a vertebral body, thought by some osseous, by others albumen; the morbid states of which are osseous diseases, such as gout. In the chambers of the eye, water, as being a product of digestion, is constantly secreted; the orbitar cavity is a mouth with salivary glands, giving tears; the lachrymal canal is a bronchial duct, which opens into the nose like the Eustachian tubes did from the ear into the mouth; the eye-lids correspond to the lips, and are, in like manner, fringed with hairs; indeed, this little organ repeats in itself the whole of man, which is the highest and most complete organization.

We are aware the general reader will expect the subject to be enunciated with the least technicality, and, therefore, we will now approach our subject in a popular form, and say there is another and more simple view of light and colour, as affecting the eye, which owns no independent light, but enjoys the rays of that orb which glorifies and warms this lower world. The light of this orb is subject to three principal laws requiring notice, viz., transmission, colour, and refraction by transparent media.

1st. The sun or any body in a state of combustion contains independent light; and striking opaque or non-luminous bodies in straight lines or rays, which are