In our last book, we called one of Billy’s smartest friends for the composition of eye boogers. This Proust-reading, NPR-listening, Ivy League-educated retina surgeon came up empty, but we decided to give him another chance. This time, not only did we get an answer, but we also got a quote from ol’ Marcel Proust:

“…we feel a veritable fever of yearning for the fallen leaves that can go so far as to keep us awake at night. Into my closed room they had been drifting already for a month, summoned there by my desire to see them. Slipping between my thoughts and the object, whatever it might be, upon which I was trying to concentrate them, whirling in front of me like those brown spots that sometimes, whatever we may be looking at, will see, to be dancing or swimming before our eyes.”

There floating spots are very common and arise because our eyes are filled with a clear gel, called vitreous humor, which , as time goes by, can partially liquefy to form small condensations, opacities, and debris. These opacities float through the vitreous as the eye moves, casting shadows on the retina (the light-sensing neural tissue lining the back of the eye). We perceive these shadows as “floaters”. In medical speak, they are called vitreous floaters or migratory scotomata. They resemble cobwebs or gnats or even tiny paisleys that slowly drift through the field of vision.

Most of the time floaters are benign, but in rare cases they can signal a serious problem such as retinal tear or detachment, if you are concerned and are in San Francisco, look up Billy’s friend, and you can get a consultation and perhaps a lecture on French literature.