History of Iridilogy

In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, writings and works on Iris markings and their meanings were recorded, mainly by medical practitioners.

One of the earliest was Dr Ignatz von Peczely, a Hungarian Doctor. While still a child, he accidentally broke an owl's leg. He noticed a black mark appearing in the owl’s eye, which over time changed in form and shading.

Ignatz von Peczely qualified in medicine at the Vienna Medical College in 1867. He had ample opportunity to study the irides of patients before and after surgery, systematically recording, correlating and publishing his research in the book ‘Discoveries in the Realms of Nature and Art of Healing’. His ‘Iris Chart’ was established in 1880.

In the 1860s, a young Swedish boy, Nils Liljequist, became ill as a consequence of a vaccination, followed by doses of quinine and iodine. He noticed the changes in colour of his formerly blue eyes, as the drug spots appeared.

In 1870, he published a paper describing his experiences, ‘Quinine and Iodine change the Colour of the Iris’, and in 1893, published ‘Om Oegendiagnosen’, which included his ‘Iris Chart’.

We should not be surprised that Liljequist and von Peczely’s ‘Iris Charts’ were very similar.

Much of the American medical research originated with the work of Dr Henry Edward Lane and his student, Dr Henry Lindlahr.  Dr Lane conducted most of his surgical and autopsy correlations using Iris markings at the Kosmos Sanitarian in Evanston, Illinois. His book ‘Iridology – The Diagnosis from the Eye’ was published in 1904, in which he states: ‘…thousands were examined before just one marking could be considered corroborated.’

Dr J Haskel Kritzer recorded his lifetime of research on Iris diagnosis in his book ‘Iridiagnosis’, which is soon to be republished by the ‘Holistic Health College’.  His work spurred on Bernard Jensen, a student of Dr Lindlahr, into further research and the development of an updated ‘Iris Chart’ with Dr John R Arnold, founder of the ‘World Iridology Fellowship’.  Dr Arnold was the main instigator in changing the term ‘iridiagnosis’ to ‘iris analysis’, which more accurately reflects that it is a means of analysing ‘conditions within’ rather than specific diseases.

Many more researchers deserve acknowledgement: their contributions will be examined in future updates of the website.