On the compound vision and the morphology of the eye in insects / by B. Thompson Lowne.
- Lowne, B. Thompson (Benjamin Thompson), 1839-1925.
- Date:
- 1884
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: On the compound vision and the morphology of the eye in insects / by B. Thompson Lowne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[389] XIV. On the Compound Vision and the Morphology of the Eye in Insects. Ey B. Thompson Lowne, E.B.C.S., E.L.S., Lecturer on Ihysiology, Middlesex Hospital, formerly Arris and Gale Lecturer, Loyal College of Surgeons. (Plates XL.-XLIII.) Read 7th February, 1884. 1HE manner in which, the compound eye of arthropods subserves the function of vision has been an undetermined problem since Johannes Muller enunciated his well- known theory of mosaic vision in 1826 *. The views of naturalists on this subject, if we except the extremely improbable and purely hypothetical view recently propounded by Exner f, may be grouped under two heads :—some have supported Muller’s hypothesis, or a modification of it % ; whilst others have followed B. Wagner, and held the view more commonly attributed to Gottsche §. It is well known that Muller supposed that each facet j,r. duces a single visual im- pression and that the whole visual field consists of a mosaic A such impressions ; many of his followers have modified this view, by supposing that a smr.u number of visual impres- sions are originated by each facet, the order of which is neitb. r reversed nor inverted by the dioptric apparatus. Muller’s hypothesis was suggested to its learned author by the radial arrangement of the parts of the compound eye about a hemispherical or nearly hemispherical retina, and by the difficulty of conceiving a retina capable of correcting a mosaic of reversed and inverted images, the order of which is neither reversed nor inverted. B. Wagner |] was the first to throw doubt upon Muller’s view : he mistook the capsule of the crystalline cone for a retina, an error which was also committed by Buete and Dor **. B. Wagner and his followers regard the compound eye as an aggregation of simple eyes, the dioptric structures of each producing an image on a distinct retina, in the same manner as the dioptric structures of the vertebrate eye, so that the whole visual field is a mosaic of reversed and inverted images, the order of which is neither reversed nor inverted. The most important paper on this subject, after Muller’s work, was undoubtedly a short but well-known contribution to Muller’s Archives by Gottsche in 1852. Leeuwen- f A * J. Miiller, ‘ Zur vergleichenden Physiol, des Gesichtssinnes des Menschen und der Thiere ’ &c. f Sigm. Exner. Biologisehes Centralblatt, Jahrg. i. p. 272, and Pop. Science Review, 1881, p. 337. t Helmholtz, Du Bois Reymond, J. Notthaft, &c. § Will. Zenker, &c. || Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1835. Bd. i. p. 372. Gratulationsschrift der med. Eac. zu Leipzig zu C. G. Cams 50-jahr. 1861. ** Archiv d. Sciences Phys. et Natur. 1861. SECOND SERIES.—ZOOLOGY, VOL. II. 58](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28066595_0009.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
