It's no secret that there are many oddities in human physiology. And today, hardly anyone can be surprised by this. It would seem that not so long ago people came from all around to look at a man with a sixth finger on his hand. And it's not surprising if you see such an "owner of an extra phalanx" these days, standing a few centimeters from you, say, in a grocery line.
Also, a pair of Siamese twins will not come as a surprise. And even if they don’t wave to you from the stage, but simply pass by in an ordinary setting. In view of the fact that they already got their eyes wet on TV, this case will be ignored. Moreover, in a couple of hours, no one will remember that just recently a couple of people rooted to each other walked past him.
And what if during the walk you catch the eyes of not two, but four pupils? And in one eyeball there will be two of them. Double pupil - this is going to get really interesting, right?
Is this real?
Whether this phenomenon is possible or not, disputes are ongoing to this day. Modern medicine completely rejects suchfact, as a disease of "double pupil". Of course, it is possible that there are many cases when the patient's eyeball really looks like it has a pair of pupils. But most often it is either a violation in the retina, or the development of a parasite, etc.
However, this phenomenon of Pupula duplex (double pupil) is found in many sources of both ancient scientists and researchers of the last century.
First mentions
Initially, this disease was called the "devil's eye". These references can be found in the works of ancient writers. A striking example is the work of the ancient Roman poet Ovid, where the double pupil has a special place. Naturally, in the old days, such a phenomenon could cause nothing but horror in people.
However, among the owners of such eyes, very successful people stand out. One of them is Liu Chong, the governor of the ancient Chinese city of Shanxi.
Mentions of Liu Chong in history
Long ago, in 995 B. C. e., in the city of Shanxi, the governor, Liu Chong, sat. Later he was transferred to the post of Minister of State. This official received his fame due to two circumstances. First, he managed to make his son the heir to all of China, which was served by his connections with the widowed empress. Second, Liu Chong had two pupils in each eye. And it was this moment that made the greatest contribution to its popularity. This is how the Chinese minister is depicted in the paintings, and this is how his wax figure, located in the Ripley Museum in London, looks like. And most importantly, that this is how he is captured in history -"The Double Eyed Man".
Besides this case, a double eye was recorded in medicine in 1931. Someone Henry Hawn - a resident of Kentucky - had a double pupil. A photo that could confirm this phenomenon was never provided to the scientific committee, which left Mr. Hawn without due attention.
20th century studies
The double pupil aroused considerable interest among scientists from 1902 to 1918. It all started with the research of Kirby Smith, which was subsequently refuted by W alton Brooks McDaniel with his work "Double Pupil and Other Manifestations of the Devil's Eye".
In his work Pupula Duplex, Smith argues that this concept is symbolic, not medical. And with this, the ancients emphasized the difference in the color of a person's eyes (for example, the left one is blue, and the right one is green). And this feature in modern science has such a name as heterochromia.
In the misunderstanding of the ancient authors of this phenomenon, McDaniel also agrees with Smith. But, according to his version, people of those times simply called pupula duplex such phenomena as, for example, pupil dilation, retinal disorders and other eye defects. And no doubt, all of the above is really capable of creating the illusion of a double pupil.
What are they saying about it these days?
If you ask a similar question to a modern ophthalmologist, then at best you can hear only laughter. Science has long disproved the possibility of having two in one eye at once.pupils.
But nevertheless, in the history of medicine there really is one disease - polycoria. It is nothing more than having two or more pupils stuck together.
Unlike the first case (double pupil), polycoria disease is expressed in visual discomfort, deterioration of visual acuity. It is characterized by a sluggish reaction to light in the visual organs. It is eliminated before preschool age exclusively by surgery. If this procedure was not done to the patient on time, then contact lenses are prescribed to him. But all these measures are taken only for those who have more than three pupils. Also, the fact that they are expanded to 2 millimeters can become an alarm signal.
Double pupil myths
There are a lot of different myths about the double pupil. The oldest of them is that the double eye is the mark of the devil. In the old days, such people were subjected to contempt and persecution.
It is also believed that this is a gift (nowadays called a superpower). Allegedly, a person with such a feature of the eyes is able to perceive the world around him more accurately, highlighting each of its elements, which makes him outstanding - a kind of superman. Some say something similar about the disease "polycoria". In their opinion, each pupil has a sphincter, which allows it to function in the same way as its neighbors. However, this is also misleading. Only one pupil in the eyeball with this disease is allowed to have a sphincter. And it functionsnever mind.
