Action of the Eyelids in Determination of Blood from Expiratory Effort" in
Beale's "Archives of Medicine," Volume V., 1870, page 20, which is a
translation of the original in Dutch.), as I shall now proceed with some
confidence; but I am intensely curious to read your essay in full when
translated and published, as I hope, in the "Dublin Journal," 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 and his
friend at a military academy tell me that when they perform certain feats
with their heads downwards their faces become purple and 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. The companions of one young man, who naturally has
very prominent eyes, used to laugh at him when performing such feats, and
declare that some day both eyes would start out of his head.

Your essay on the physiological and anatomical relations between the
contraction of the orbicular muscles and the secretion of tears is
wonderfully clear, and has interested me greatly. I had not thought about
irritating substances getting into the nose during vomiting; but my clear
impression is that mere retching causes tears. I will, however, try to get
this point ascertained. 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...and in
your very curious case of the spasms (465/3. In some cases a slight touch
to the eye causes spasms of the orbicularis muscle, which may continue for
so long as an hour, being accompanied by a flow of tears. See "Expression
of the Emotions," page 166.)--that in all these cases the orbicular muscles
are strongly and unconsciously contracted, and 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 shown me that the nature of