[344]

Sir C. Bell. The nervous System of the Human Body

5. Edit 1836. — p. 175. — gives the case of Body & cages c insists on case of man sneezing, in when the orbicular is contracted so strongly & suddenly, with flow of blood, that a flash of light is seen.— This connection is so important that Bell called the small branches of the "portico dura" the "respirating nerve of the face"

[Cited in Expression, p. 158: 'Sir C. Bell explains12 this action in the following manner:—"During every violent act of expiration, whether in hearty laughter, weeping, coughing, or sneezing, the eyeball is firmly compressed by the fibres of the orbicularis; and this is a provision for supporting and defending the vascular system of the interior of the eye from a retrograde impulse communicated to the blood in the veins at that time. When we contract the chest and expel the air, there is a retardation of the blood in the veins of the neck and head; and in the more powerful acts of expulsion, the blood not only distends the vessels, but is even regurgitated into the minute branches. Were the eye not properly compressed at that time, and a resistance given to the shock, irreparable injury might be inflicted on the delicate textures of the interior of the eye.'"]