a species of corporal punishment anciently inflicted on thieves, adulterers, perjurers, and others; and from which the ancient Christians were not exempt. Sometimes lime and vinegar, or barely scalding vinegar, was poured into the eyes till their balls were consumed; sometimes a rope was twisted round the head till the eyes started out. In the middle age, they changed total blindness for a great darkness or diminution of sight; which they produced by holding a red-hot iron dish or bason before the eyes till their humours were dried and their coats shrivelled up.

The inhabitants of the city Apollonia executed it on their watch whom they found asleep.—Democritus (according to Plutarch, Cicero, and A. Gellius), put out his own eyes, that he might be less disturbed in his mental contemplations, when thus freed from the distraction of the objects of sight.