First, I felt his pulse, grasping his wrist with intentional brusqueness in the hope of rousing him from his stupor.

The beats were slow, feeble and slightly irregular, giving clear evidence, if any were needed, of his generally lowered vitality.

I listened carefully to his heart, the sounds of which were very distinct through the thin walls of his emaciated chest, but found nothing abnormal beyond the feebleness and uncertainty of its action.
Then I turned my attention to his eyes, which I examined closely with the aid of the candle and my ophthalmoscope lens, raising the lids somewhat roughly so as to expose the whole of the irides.

He submitted without resistance to my rather ungentle handling of these sensitive structures, and showed no signs of discomfort even when I brought the candle-flame to within a couple of inches of his eyes.
But this extraordinary tolerance of light was easily explained by closer examination; for the pupils were contracted to such an extreme degree that only the very minutest point of black was visible at the centre of the grey iris.

Nor was this the only abnormal peculiarity of the sick man's eyes.