Eighty years have elapsed since the discovery of Iris-diagnosis by Dr. Peczely, and readers of this book—yes, even those who have gone into the subject of iris-diagnosis more thoroughly and enriched it with valuable observations and new discoveries, know very little about the discoverer himself and of his life and work. Therefore, it will certainly prove of interest to our readers to bring before them a faithful portrait of the discoverer, Dr. Ignaz von Peczely.

An eventful and fruitful life began in the year 1826 in Mon-yorokerek, when Ignaz von Peczely, son of an estate official to Count Johann von Szechenyi, first saw the light of the world. The young lad drew attention to himself even in the tender years of childhood through his intellectual capabilities. Then, while a scholar of the Premontreer Grammer School in Szombathely he carved such perfect figures out of wood, with the aid of a simple penknife, that the then Prince-Bishop von Gran Scitovsky wanted to send him to Rome for further instruction. When one takes into consideration that Dr. Ignaz von Peczely displayed those gifts at the early age of thirteen years (gifts which later led him to his discovery of iris-diagnosis) one can easily comprehend the many-sidedness that P.eczley manifested in his later years.

In the year 1838 he accidentally wounded an owl in the wing. He lifted up the wounded bird in order to take it home. How­ever, the owl buried its claws in his right hand with such a rage that the boy, in trying to get free from it, fractured the owl's right leg with his left hand. Both glared into each other's eyes. In that instant, when the leg broke, a little mark of blood appeared in the right yellow eye of the owl which remained as a dark mark after the healing of the broken bone. After this observation the boy quite forgot the whole incident.

After finishing at the Grammar School he was trained to be an engineer. In 1848-49 he fought as first lieutenant in the Hun­garian War of Liberty, was twice wounded and was decorated for his bravery by Ludwig Kossuth himself. After the suppression of the War of Liberty, Peczely was interned in Koposvar, where he, having lost his former situation with the Count Szechenyi, was compelled to earn his living as a dancing and fencing master. In 1851 he received an appointment as gymnastic and drawing in­structor at the Koposvar Grammar School, and remained there until 1853; and at this time produced the very successful self-portrait which was cherished by his family.

Up to the year 1860 he followed his original occupation and worked as an engineer. In the years 1858-60 he made his first acquaintance with homoeopathic remedies at the home of a relative, Dr. Gulyas, who was a homoeopathic doctor in Kaposvar. A year later he returned to his parents in Egervar, Com. Vas., tak­ing with him the most common homoeopathic medicines: aconite, arnica, belladonna, bryonia, phosphorus, pulsatilla, silica and sulfur.

When an employee of the Court Estate became seriously ill with fever, pain in the chest, cough and hemorrhage and no doctor at hand, Peczely's mother, whose most cherished wish it was that her son should choose a medical career, begged him to prescribe his remedies. Peczely gave aconite, bryonia and phos­phorus every half-hour alternately. When the doctor did arrive in a few days, the sick employee was well. At this time a girl with cancer was also brought to Peczely, and he gave her sulfur and silica, and also in this case recovery followed the treatment. Thereafter the news quickly spread that Peczely was a "wonder-doctor" and soon there came a great pressure of patients from near and far who would not be held back until they were brought before him.

Then it was that Peczely made various observations and wondered why all these people had different coloured eyes and why there were different lines, dots and marks to be seen on the anterior surface of the iris. From then onward he paid great attention to the human eye.

One day there came a man who had a conspicuous mark on the right eye. As Peczely was looking at the mark, the line in the eye of the wounded owl suddenly occurred to him. He made a test and asked the patient whether he had not suffered an injury to the left shoulder. After receiving an affirmative answer he further examined the man's eyes and saw that on a point of the iris corresponding to the hour of six o'clock, there was also a mark which he had seen in his owl so many years ago. To the question whether he had not also fractured the right lower limb, the patient again replied in the affirmative. Thereupon the thought came to Peczely that injuries to the body left traces behind in the iris. From this day on, which may be looked upon as the day of discovery of eye-diagnosis, Peczely examined the eyes of every patient.

Soon he built up a system, in that he endeavored to explain all marks in the iris through clinical findings. This is how he himself spoke of it:

"So I observed at first various kinds of light and dark spots and discolorations on the anterior surface of the iris. I then looked for the similar illness having corresponding marks, and conversely again to discover the same mark relating to the same sickness. After a short time I began to relate to each patient the past history of his surmounted illnesses."

Naturally, after such a "wonderful" discovery the number of patients grew to such an extent from all parts until at last the authorities stepped in and prohibited P.eczely from treating the sick any longer. However, at this time he recognized that he was born to be a doctor and wished to become one officially, and in the Spring of 1862, in his 36th year, he matriculated at the Uni­versity of Budapest as a medical student. But on account of persecution because of his views he moved to Vienna after a year, where he won his diploma in 1868. Immediately he returned to Budapest where he began his practice, and most of his supporters followed him there.

Up to 1871 he worked unceasingly on his discovery, and then he saw that the time had come to publish his results. He was requested to give a lecture on his eye-diagnosis to the Hungarian Homoeopathic Society. The lecture was begun, but never finish­ed, for the opponents to his views had disturbed his address in such a manner that Peczely broke it off and declined to go on. After this occurrence he founded a magazine entitled "Iris," in which he placed before the public his researches in the Hungarian and German languages. In the year 1880 the first edition of "Eye-Diagnosis" in Hungarian and German appeared. From then on the interest in Peczely's discovery grew all over the world. He was visited by the most distinguished homoeopathic doctors, such as Stiegele of Stuttgart, Grubermann of St. Gallen, Schlegel of Tuebingen, and Fischer, Physician-in-Ordinary to the Queen of Prussia.

The Homoeopathic Monthly, during the year 1886, contained detailed accounts of his life, eye-diagnosis and his theory. In 1887 Stiegele defended eye-diagnosis against Dr. Sick. Dr. Albert Miller, of San Francisco, was in correspondence with Eeczely in 1893, and wished to bring out an English edition of eye-diagnosis. Professor Marques wanted to take the translation in hand, but as he had to move to Honolulu (after the annexation of the Hawaii Islands) in order to save his estates, the above effort fell through. Marques fought for the recognition of eye-diagnosis in the "Mer­cury." In 1896 Peczely was invited to go to America in order to give lectures to the Homoeopathic Clinics in Philadelphia. He would, however, not undertake this long journey.

In 1881 Dr. Peczely turned his interest to more important matters. Through his discovery in the iris of the mark of bi-sexuality he worked on his great conception of bi-sexuality, the origin of the world, and finally the marvellous laws of procreation, in which he shows the way to eugenics and artificial control in regard to number and sex of the offspring. The public at this time knew of these discoveries just as little as it does to-day. The professional and lay press of Budapest, Vienna, Stuttgart, Berlin, Bremen, Karlsruhe, Leipzig, Munich, Breslau, Madrid, New York was full of the name of Peczely, particularly in the year 1887, but he is mentioned only as the discoverer of eye-diagnosis.

IRIS PIGMENTATION

The literal meaning of the word "Iris" is a coloured halo or rainbow circle, and so it is used to denote the coloured circular membrane placed between the cornea, the transparent anterior portion (or forefront) of the eye, and the lens, which is a biconvex body (also transparent) lying in a capsule further back behind the pupil—the aperture in the centre of the iris for the passage of light to the light-sensitive nervous back portion of the eye, called the retina.

The colored iris is a muscular device which is able to relax or contract so as to control the amount of light that enters the eye, like the shutter of a camera. It is the front surface of the iris that may be of different colors or shadings of color in dif­ferent individuals, such as blue, brown, grey or green, depending on the amount and distribution of the pigment cells. This coloring is determined largely by heredity.

It is now known, however, that abnormal pigmentation of the iris occurs as a result of nutritional deficiencies which cause serious disturbances of the normal chemistry of the body. This new dis­covery surely calls for further observations and study, as pains­taking as those of Dr. von Peczely.

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