Color-blindness and color-perception / by Swan M. Burnett.
- Swan Moses Burnett
- Date:
- 1882
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Color-blindness and color-perception / by Swan M. Burnett. 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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![ON THE DIFFUSION OF iDOES. §5 More than thirty-si: then engaged in delive ena of odors and the effluvia or diffusion-of years ago I announced, ing, that there were sonf 3 facts in the phenom sense of smell that were articles theory ; and I n some lectures I was incompatible with the Suggested an explana- tion based on the idea )f a vibration or wave-n otion, and an “odorif erous ether” analogou to, if not identical with] that of the luminifer- ous ether. In the year 1863, i: a letter to Professor Tjndall, I submitted the thought to him. Afl ir quoting some passagesjfrom his book, “Heat a Mode of Motion,” u on the subject of odors, jl wrote as follows : “ I would respectfully as experiments upon thikl subject, it has ever occurred to you that odor might be as essentially a “mode of motion ” ; 3 heat, light, or sound? Snlimited generation of :dorif erous particles (?) without sensible diminuffion of bulk or weight, The seemingly by certain substance^ first led to the conception that, however copiously odoriferous particles of matter were disseminated through the atmo sphere, the odorous prop- erty itself was as purely a specific variety of motion as the undulations e the explanation of the of its route to the bu- or it is hardly conceiv- penetrate the membrane of the luminiferous ether. That this must action of the odor-gi:nerating force for a partj man sensorium seen:3 to be incontrovertible, I able that the materi ll particles should actually and force their wa •, as moving bodies, through the pulpy tissue of the nerves to the se :t of sensation ; but that through that portion of their career, at least their power is propaga pd by wave-like motions analogous to those <:f heat and sound.’ Professor Tynd; Ll did me the honor to ar s wer my letter, but not to indorse my view, e: cept in a very faint and : ualified manner. Never- theless, reflection and added experience have in the correctness |of it, and I venture to uch an accepted fact of luminiferous-ether jtheory now is. In the case gijren above the entire sp with the perfume as And yet these “partic through the roomfl are wafted away, and t emissions from th| undiminished “ grain,” ‘ every year without appreciable “ sensible weight,” or pung|ncy. This is an obvious r atomic diffusion. The fusibility and vaStness of inter-particular the difficulty, fon the odor spans the span ous as if the particles were in actual co: space, the chamber, anywhere within the no place where is not. This actio in di oughly impregnate lute solid of odor.. only gone to confirm me firedict that before many cience as the undulatory, —vibration—bepween the particles. e of the chamber is thor- ch as if it were an abso- s,” so profusely diffused ir places supplied by new any thousands of times ” minution of its volume or possibility upon any the- ssumption of immense dif- paces would only enhance 1—is as absolutely continu- act. That is, in the given imits of the odor, there is dns implies ethereal motion](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22399392_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
