In 1999 E. Ernst undertook an investigation into Iridology and concluded that it was not a valid scientific method to diagnose disease. He would be correct in saying that as it is not a practice to reveal specific pathologies. However, the iris records information of inflammation, acidity, toxicity, congested lymph and hardening of the arteries, which in itself are helpful in improving health.
The iris is an extension of the brain endowed with many thousands of nerve endings, microscopic blood vessels, as well as muscle and connective tissue. When consulting a normal anatomic atlas, it is easy to see that organs are connected to the iris via the nervous system and the nerve fibres receiving impulses through the optic nerve and the spinal cord.
So exactly what is Iridology?
Iridology goes back to the dawn of time approximately 3000 BCE. The Chiromatica Medica written by Philippus Meyeus was published in 1665 and shows the first description of the iridological principle. However, the firs use of the word Augendiagnostic or”eye diagnosis” translated into iridology coined by the Hungarian physician Ignaz von Peczely. It appears that Peczely got the idea for this diagnostic tool after seeing streaks in the eyes of a man he was treating for a broken leg and found the same streaks in the eyes of an owl with a broken leg. Nils Lijenquist suffered from a very swollen lymph node and found that after taking medication for his condition that the colour composition of his eyes changed. This inspired him to create an atlas of the eye in 1893 which contained a number of illustrations of the iris which he termed the “Diagnosis of the Eye”. In the early 1900s a German Homoeopath, Emanuel Felke, used eye diagnosis to successfully treat specific illnesses. In earlier times Bernard Jensen developed his own method of the iris diagnosis the 1950s.
Iridology can only be used in conjunction with the patient’s description of symptoms to support any disease state and is quite accurate when used in this combination.