Retinal insensibility to ultra-violet and infra-red rays / by L. Webster Fox and Geo. M. Gould.

  • Fox, Lawrance Webster, 1853-1931.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Retinal insensibility to ultra-violet and infra-red rays / by L. Webster Fox and Geo. M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    as we have elsewhere tried to show, it seems strange that the great laws of evolution and natural selection should be so per- sistently and successfully used to explain the functions and re- actions of other organs, and the visual activity be the last to which these principles are applied. But that delightful class of grubbers who have gone clean daft on materialism, and who would, with sublimely comic impertinence, explain life in terms of mechanics, and analyze a maiden’s blush into (C600B960FeN 154S3O177 [Haemoglobin] )+0-f (C5Hi3HO [“Neurine”] ) =X.,—Q.E.D.!—these philosophers do not, to be sure, need even these paltry helps of historic stucfy, to demonstrate truth, any more than did Punch’s Humpty Dumpty, “who sat on the wall, to his nurse proving he never could fall, etc. ’ Besides the facts of the weakness and inconstancy of supply of the infra-red rays, and barring also the immense complication and increase of retinal and cerebral machinery it would have ne- cessitated, we may pertinently ask of what advantage to the great kingdom of developing animal-life would it have been if retinal reaction had been extended to the infra-red rays ? All existing objects become visible by means of the light rays; any object that would reflect these infra red rays already reflects the rays of the visible spectrum in sufficient strength and variety to give the visual mechanism full advices of the existence and qualities of the object. May it not be consistently supposed that the effect of these infra-red rays, if allowed to produce vis- ual result would simply be productive of confusion? The ob- ject of color may* generally be said to be to give evidence of the qualities of objects. Extension of the color-scale and response would not only give no possible advantage to ils possessor, but it may be certainly said that such extension would assuredly disadvantage its unfortunate owner in the struggle for existence, not only by complicating the retinal machinery, but also by ren- dering the organism’s response more uncertain and less lightning- like in rapidity. Do the Ultra-violet and Infra-red Vibrations Reach the Retina or Visual Centers? In this connection the question arises as to the means whereby
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