Re: red eye

["Prof. John P. Ertel (wizard)" <jpe@nadn.navy.mil>]

I have more pictures that I can count of dogs which i have been fortunate
to have as companions in my life.  Looking through these, I find a roughly
equal distribution of "shining eyes" from yellow/gold to bright green to
blue-green.  It is interesting to note that the larger dogs seem to have
the blue-green color more often than anything else, while the smaller dogs
seem more likely to have the yellow/gold color.  I could almost believe
that it is due, in the main, to the smaller angle to the eyes of the big
dogs as there eyes are closer to to the level of the camera.  One great
dane that we had always had blue-green shining eyes when she was standing.
Indeed, the only picture that we have of her with the yellow/gold color
are with her lying down on the floor.

I have been told by our Vet that he had been given the "distribution of
rods & cones" explanation in Vet school but neither he nor his colleagues
have ever seen anything in one of their journals to substantiate this
assertion.


On Thu, 14 Nov 1996, Chris Clayton wrote:

> > The point about the different colour seen when we see an animal's eyes
> > looking back at us, illuminated by a continuous source rather than a flash,
> > is interesting. Does anyone know if, say, a cat shows red eye in a flash
> > photograph? I suppose it's less likely to be staring at the camera in the
> > first place...
> > Mark.
>
>         I don't know about cats, but I've seen "yellow eye" in photographs
> of dogs.  I'm sure cats show something similar, though I wouldn't want to
> speculate on the color.  
>
> Chris
>
>
> -- Chris Clayton  
> (first year physical science teacher)
> Mt. Zion Senior High School
> 305 S Henderson
> Mt. Zion, IL 62549
>
> email: misterc@uiuc.edu
> 	(currently forwarding to: clayton@webmart.net)
> MSN Chemistry Forum Assistant
> 	ChrisC_Asst@msn.com
>
> "Life is a vector quantity."

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