Specification of Auguste Boissonneau : artificial eyes.

  • Boissonneau, Auguste.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of Auguste Boissonneau : artificial eyes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Boissonneau s Improvements in Artificial Eyes. my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, 5 NOW KIIOW YE, that J, the said Auguste Boissonneau, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the c following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say):— 10 My Invention may be divided into two parts. The first part of the Invention consists of a peculiar arrangement of the different parts of arti¬ ficial eyes, which causes them to assume of themselves in given cases a horizontal position, as regards the extremities of their long diameter corre¬ sponding to the palpebral angles. This contrivance adapts the artificial 15 eye at once for that side of the face to which it is to be applied, and at the same time ensures its remaining constantly equipoised, without in the least interfering with the lachrymal functions, and also its obeying the impulse of the moving power (the remains of the sightless globe) before which it is placed. 20 The second part of the Invention consists in forming a notch, perforation, or aperture in the inferior palpebral section of all descriptions of artificial eyes, whether of new or old manufacture. By this means a communication is established between the internal and external parts of the artificial eye, which prevents the stagnation and decomposition of the tears in the concavity 25 of the eye, and causes the lachrymal fluid to be constantly on a level with the punctum, (the orifice which in the normal state receives the tears and conveys them into the nose,) thus restoring the functions of the lachrymal canal. The vitrified substances employed in the manufacture of artificial eyes are 30 generally of the same specific gravity, whatever may be their kinds and colors. The thickness of the enamel which imitates the sclerotica is the same in all points of the artificial eye. In eyes made according to my former improvements, the cornea being situated closely to the caruncular extremity of the artificial eye, caused that extremity to be heavier and to sink down 35 towards the lower lid by a rotatory movement of the eye. 1 his imperfection could only be remedied by the pressure which the two extremities of the artificial eye exercise on the orbital parts, to which they correspond, and which fit in the curves, which may be seen in Figures 2, 3, and 4 of the annexed Drawings.