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The story of a Great Discovery Outline of the section: How Dr. Von Peckzely, of Budapest, Hungary, discovered Nature's records in the eye, quite by accident, when a boy ten years of age. Dr. Von Peckzely, of Budapest, Hungary, discovered Nature's records in the eye, quite by accident, when a boy ten years of age. Playing one day in the garden at his home, he caught an owl. While struggling with the bird, he broke one of its limbs. Gazing straight into the owl's large, bright eyes, he noticed, at the moment when the bone snapped, the appearance of a black spot in the lower central region of the iris, which area he later found to correspond to the location of the broken leg. The boy put a splint on the broken limb and kept the owl as a pet. As the fracture healed, he noticed that the black spot in the iris became overdrawn by a white film and surrounded by a white border (denoting the formation of scar tissues in the broken bone). This incident made a lasting impression on the mind of the future doctor. It often recurred to him in later years. From further observations he gained the conviction that abnormal physical conditions are portrayed in the eyes. As a student, Von Peckzely became involved in the revolutionary movement of 1848 and was put in prison as an agitator and ringleader. During his confinement he had plenty of time and leisure to pursue his favorite theory, and he became more and more convinced of the importance of his discovery. After his release he entered upon the study of medicine, in order to develop his important discoveries and to confirm them more fully in the operating and dissecting rooms. He had himself enrolled as an interne in the surgical wards of the college hospital. Here he had ample opportunity to observe the eyes of patients before and after accidents and operations, and in that manner he was enabled to elaborate the first accurate Chart of the Eye. Since Von Peckzely gave his discoveries to the world, many well known scientists and conscientious observers in Austria, Germany, Sweden and in this country have devoted their lives to the perfection of this wonderful science. Foremost among the followers of Von Peckzely in Europe was the Rev. Niels Liljequist, a Swedish clergyman, who, for many years, has made Iridology his life work. He perfected Peckzely's chart of the iris and was the first one to describe signs of drug poisoning. He had suffered terribly from most of the symptoms of quinin poisoning (chronic cinchonism) ever since he had taken large quantities of the drug in early life. After he became acquainted with iridiagnosis he discovered the connection between the yellow discoloration in his eyes and the chronic quinin poisoning. This led him to study the relationship of other color pigments to various forms of drug poisoning, such as iodism, mercurialism, bromism, arsenical poisoning, etc. In Germany Dr. Thiel and Pastor Felke made valuable contributions to Iridology, and became famous diagnosticians and Nature Cure physicians. In this country Henry Lahn, M. D., wrote the first book in the English language on this new and valuable method of diagnosis. Many years of personal acquaintance with this remarkable man and his work impels me to give him credit for being the ablest iridiagnostician now living. Anderchou in England published a few years ago a brief summary of the discoveries and teachings of the pioneers of Iridology. The "regular" school of medicine, as a body, has ignored and will ignore this science, because it discloses the fallacy of their favorite theories and practices, and because it reveals unmistakably the direful results of chronic drug poisoning and ill advised operations. Leaving out of consideration everything that is at present speculative and uncertain, we are justified in making the following statements, subject to the qualifications and limitations before described: (1) The eye is not only, as the ancients said, "the mirror of the soul", but it also frequently reveals abnormal conditions and changes in every part and organ of the body. (2) Organs and parts of the body are represented in the iris of the eye in well defined areas. (Chart--Frontispiece.) (3) The iris of the eye contains an immense number of minute nerve filaments, which through the optic nerves, the optic thalami and the spinal cord are connected with and receive impressions from every nerve in the body. (4) The nerve filaments, muscle fibres and minute blood vessels in the different areas of the iris reproduce the changing conditions in the corresponding parts or organs. (5) By means of various marks, signs, abnormal colors, or discolorations in the iris, Nature reveals transmitted disease taints and hereditary lesions. (6) By signs, marks and discolorations, Nature also makes known acute and chronic inflammatory or catarrhal conditions, local lesions, destruction of tissues, various drug poisons, and changes in structures and tissues caused by accidental injury or by surgical mutilations. (Figs. 12, 28) (7) The diagnosis from the iris of the eye positively confirms Hahnemann's theory that acute diseases have a constitutional background of hereditary or acquired disease taints or systemic encumbrances. (8) This science enables the diagnostician to ascertain, from the appearance of the iris, many of the patient's inherited or acquired tendencies toward health and toward disease, his condition in general, and the state of various organs in particular. Reading Nature's records in the eye, he can predict many of the healing crises through which the patient will have to pass on the road to health. (9) The iris frequently reveals dangerous changes in vital parts and organs from their inception, thus enabling the patient to avert threatening disease by natural living and natural methods of treatment. (10) Changes in the iris indicate plainly the gradual purification of the system, the elimination of morbid matter and poisons, and the readjustment of the organism to normal conditions under the regenerating influences of natural living and treatment.
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