Glass Eye, 2800 BC – The surprisingly ancient history of the artificial eye

Charles Dickens wrote of a villainous schoolmaster in Nicholas Nickelby, "He had only one eye, and popular prejudice ran in favor of two.". In fact, losing an eye because of disease, a birth defect or an accident is a profound emotional experience for cosmetic, social and functional reasons.

Artificial eyes do not replace a person's sight, but they can fill the eye socket and can even be attached to muscles to provide natural eye movements. Today, more than 10 thousand people lose an eye each year. Although "glass eyes" generally come to mind for this purpose, most artificial eyes are now made of plastic.

Interestingly, the oldest known artificial eye was discovered about 5,000 years ago in a 1.8-meter-tall female skeleton in the ruins of Burnt, an ancient city in southeastern Iran. This artificial eye is hemispherical and consists of a natural tar mixed with animal fat. Its surface is covered with a thin layer of gold engraved with a circular iris and gold lines patterned like rays of sunlight. The prosthetic eye was not designed to imitate a real eye, but if this tall woman was someone regarded as sacred, it could have sparkled brightly and given the impression that she had special powers.

In 1579, the Venetians invented the first artificial eyes made of thin glass shells to be fitted behind the eyelids.

Also, in 1884, a glass sphere was sometimes inserted into the natural eyeball socket to restore lost volume and allow the prosthesis to move. German craftsmen once toured the United States, making custom eyes as needed, and ocularists (people specializing in making eye prostheses) began keeping hundreds of ready-made eyes in stock. In 1943, when Germany's superior kryolite glass could not be exported during World War II, United States Army technicians began fitting wounded soldiers with plastic eyes.

Researchers are currently developing various implants attached to the retina to provide sight through the use of advanced microelectronics that communicate with the optic nerve or the brain's visual cortex.

Description of the article image: Carcinoma (a malignant tumor) was the reason for enucleation (surgical removal) of the right eye in a patient. The orbital prosthesis used afterward was made of glass and silicone.

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