Having two pupils, is that possible? As we like strange things so much and everything that arouses curiosity, we discover something that will certainly impress you.Are you still with us?
Is it possible to have two pupils in one eye?
As you know, the pupil is a tiny hole located in the central part of the iris where light enters the inside of the eye; This hole dilates and contracts according to the surrounding clarity, and is apparently always black.It is responsible for regulating the light that reaches the retina, and we all have two, one in each eye.They move thanks to two muscles, pupil sphincters , which open and close it.
Now, having two pupils sounds like science fiction, something you would see in Hollywood movies and, of course, it would be a distinctive feature of non-human beings, or of evolutionary processes to adapt to extreme and apocalyptic situations.
But no, having two pupils, although it is an extremely rare condition, is not impossible, and has a medical name: police .And there is even a more common condition called pseudopolicy .But what is it?
The police, the real one , is a disease in which the affected person has two or more pupils in the same eye, contained in the same iris; and not only that, but each one has its own sphincter muscles that make them, each one, capable of functioning independently.
On the contrary, with the pseudopolicy, the pupils are not independent, they are more well other small holes inside the iris, and they move with the same sphincter muscles.Obviously they don't work like real pupils.
Despite the strangeness of this condition, or precisely because of that, throughout the history only a handful of people have apparently suffered from police, or "duplex pupil", which literally means double pupil.Of course it has been mentioned in the literature, for example in the Metamorphosis of Ovid, where myth is confused with the evil eye.And in the famous Even if you don't believe it... of Robert Ripley, where there is a mention Direct ion to this disease suffered by a man in Mills, Kentucky, in 1931.
Another famous" policoric "would be Liu Ch'ung , Chinese state minister who ruled during the X century; the rumor that he had two pupils arose long after his death, so there is also no reliable record of the fact.Actually, medical records are quite scarce, and although they acknowledge their existence-despite having no idea of because it originates–, ophthalmologists agree on the absolutely rare character of the police, although they have reached the conclusion that it may be due to a congenital condition or appear by some other disease that directly affects the iris.In any case, the appearance it would be more like spots around the iris, rather than clearly defined pupils.
Do you know someone who can have two pupils? For now, we recommend reading our article James Morris, the fantastic «rubber man».
Images: CX15, from the Houssaye G et al
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