In a physiological psychology class at LSU in roughly 1980 my professor mentioned, in passing, the efforts of what I remember as a late 1800’s Frenchman (decade and nationality may actually be quite different) who had a contract with the government to collect the heads of those nameless individuals freshly guillotined. From these specimans, said Frenchman would remove the eyes in an attempt to remove and “develop” (my word) the retinas of the recently deceased. It was his belief that whatever image this person last saw before decapitation was somehow “burned” into the retina.
A similar theory can be seen in the generally mildly reviewed film “The Wild, Wild West” with Will Smith and Kevin Kline during an early set up of the films “plot” where a murderer is revealed in the “retinal photograph” (my term) for the two main characters.
The professor did not speak of any images captured in this fashion. Such images, if possible and on record somewhere, would be interesting to see. However, the Frenchman’s claim to at least a footnote of history is that his work gave greater understanding to the physical structure of the eye, especially the rods and cones of the retina which allow us to see color. I would like to know who this person is and any other information on his efforts in this regard. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
I can’t find your head collecting Frenchman. However, the possibility of using retinal images to identify murderers did show up in the American legal system during the late 1800’s:
I think it’s true that this belief was indeed in circulation at one point - that the retina would preserve an image of the last thing seen before death - of course it doesn’t work like that, but there was a time when people believed it.
Addenda: IF the retina retained an image from the time of death the forensics folks would be putting it to use at every oppurtinity.
Too bad it isn’t possible as it is a mater of nerve currents from the retina to the brain.
The image is formed in the brain. The retina is NOT a photographic film.
However, it is true that French executioners would often allow doctors/anatomists to collect the heads of the recently decapitated to perform any number of tests on them in the aim of determining whether these heads “knew” if they were dead or if they could be reanimated in any way. Grisly. But it did advance scientific knowledge.