If It Isn't One Thing. It Is Another

Marjorie was right, the black speck in front of my eye is called a "floater".  I thought this Chinese opinion was the most interesting of those I have read.  It is like there is a piece of something on your eyelid or haning down from your hair.  Very annoying.  I first noticed it last Monday while I was waiting for Mike at the eye doctor.  How appropriate.

CHINESE MEDICAL VIEWS
In the Yinhai Jingwei (Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea), a text on ophthalmology from the time of the Ming Dynasty (1), there is a discussion of floaters, described as "black blurred specks in the eyes resembling fly wings." The pathology is said to be related to the "water of the kidney" refers to the kidney yin, as distinguished from the "fire of the kidney," which corresponds to the kidney yang or mingmen fire:


[Floaters] are a sign of weakness of the water of the kidney. The kidney is the mother of the liver. If the water of the kidney can not nourish the wood of the liver, the liver will display deficiency heat. The gallbladder lies beside the liver. If the wood of the liver is withered and parched, the qi of the gallbladder will be insufficient. As a result, whenever one starts or halts a movement of the head, black specks resembling fly wings float in the spirit water of the eyes.