To F. C. Donders 3 June [1870]1
Down Beckenham | Kent
June 3rd
My dear Sir,
I do not know how to thank you enough for the very great trouble which you have taken in writing at such length, & for your kind expressions towards me.2 I am particularly obliged for the abstract with respect to Sir C. Bell’s views, as I shall now proceed with some confidence; but I am intensely anxious to read your essay in full when translated & published, as I hope, in the Dublin Journal.3 As you speak of the weak-point in the case, viz; that injuries are not known to follow from the gorging of the eye with blood, I may mention that my son & his friend at a Military Academy, tell me that when they perform certain feats with heads downwards, their faces become purple & veins distended, and that they then feel an uncomfortable sensation in their eyes, but that, as it is necessary for them to see, they cannot protect their eyes by closing the eyelids.4 The companions of one young man who naturally has very prominent eyes, used to laugh at him when performing his feats, & declare that some day both eyes wd start out of his head.
Your essay on the physiological & anatomical relations between the contraction of the orb-muscles & the secretion of tears is wonderfully clear, & has interested me greatly. I had not thought about irritating substances getting into nose while vomiting; but my clear impression is that mere retching causes tears; I will however try to get this point ascertained.5 When I reflect that in vomiting, (subject to the above doubt) in violent coughing from choking, in yawning, violent laughter, in the violent downward action of the abdominal muscle as during the evacuation of fæces when constipated, & in your very curious case of the spasms,—that in all theses cases, the orb-muscles are strongly and unconsciously contracted; & that at the same time tears often certainly flow, I must think that there is a connection of some kind between these Phenomena; but you have clearly shewn me that the nature of the relation is at present quite obscure.6
With the most cordial thanks for your great kindness | believe me | my dear Sir | yours sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.
Summary
Thanks FCD for information.
Hopes that translation of his paper will appear in Dublin Journal.
Notes experience of his son [Leonard Darwin] on engorgement of eyes with blood. Discusses secretion of tears when eye muscles are involuntarily contracted.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7215
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Frans Cornelis (Franciscus Cornelius) Donders
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- C 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7215,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7215.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18