Page 28 - Miracle in the Eye
P. 28

M MIRACLE IN THE EYE



                                                  The extraocular      The extraocular
                                                   muscle that          muscle that
                                                  moves the eye up    moves the eye to
                                                                         the right






                                                 The extraocular       The extraocular
                                                muscle that moves        muscle that
                                                 the eye to the left
                                                                        moves the eye
                                                                           down

           (Figures 1.6 and 1.7). The eye muscles, as seen from the front and from behind.


            nas. If even one of these twelve muscles, in six groups, is not sufficiently pre-
            cise, focusing becomes a problem and you see double. (To get an idea of how
            difficult the result becomes, simply press gently against the side of one eye
            with your finger and try to view any nearby object.)
                Apart from the effect of double vision, when the harmony between
            the muscles is gone one's facial expression is distorted as is the case with
            squinting.
                If the eyes did not possess such muscles, they would remain motionless
            like a pair of frozen glass buttons. The face would have an unchanging, un-
            communicative expression, without any meaning or message. To see any-
            thing, we would have to aim the head directly in the direction of the object,
            costing us much mobility and flexibility in the course of our daily lives.


                Conjunctiva: Lifetime Care
                In addition to the tears lubricating and disinfecting the eyeball round-
            the-clock, the eyes have another liquid maintenance system that secretes
            greasy liquid to smooth the eye's some hundred-thousand-a-day rotational
            motions against friction and external particles.
                The eyeball consists of many tissue layers one atop the other. The con-
            junctiva membrane's job is to lubricate the eyeball's surface layer.
            Conjunctiva is situated between the inner surface of the eyelid and the eye-


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