GAMBETTA'S EYE.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1024, 20 April 1883, Page 2

GAMBETTA'S EYE.

The Lancet says “So many stones have been told concerning M Gainbetta’s eye that it becomes necessary to re-estab-lish the true facts of the case. The injury was due to an accident. A tool escaped from the hands of a workman in a turner’s shop, and struck Gambetta in the face, blinding him in one eye. Gambetta was but a boy lhen._ In the course of years the anterior part of the globe gradually dilated, arid became so large that he could no longer close the eyelids. In 1867 Gambetta was introduced by his friend, Dr Fienzal, to the celebrated oculist De Wecker, who declared that the wounded eye must at once he excised. De Wecker describes the operation, which he performed, in a surgical journal.- The eye, which was pear-shaped,'had’grown to double -its normal ; size, and its autere posterior diameter measured nearly five ; centimetres. In three days Gambetta was able to quit his bed, and he was very soon completely cured. Da Wecker preserved the eye, .but he ultimately... lent it to the renowned histologist, Professor I wan off, remarking at the time that it was the eye of a man destined, he was sure, to enact an • important part in 1 tlie f history \of his country >r Two years ago Professor Twanoff died at ‘ Men tbhe, having still' in his possession Gambetta’s eye. This relic,: together with Professor IwanofE’s collection, was handed over to his most devoted pupil, tlre ? Duke; Charles of brother the Empress of Austria and of the; exQueen of Naples. .Thus the eye;pf the. statesman and patriot who, as Dictator, contributed more than, anyone’ else to raise armies and resist' the German invasion, is now, in the hands of a German Prince