The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-01-01
THEIR QUEER SIDE.
ID REGION OF THINGS THAT is QUITE
FERTILE IN SURPRISES.

Tho Irresistible Fascination OF Seemipg
Parado1es--why Do We Sec Everything
Upside Down?-Is Seeing Good Reason
For Believing?
Fact being stranger than fiction, there
will always be, as there always has boon,
queer side Of things'-a region quito
MS fertile In surprises rs TINT explored by
Alice In Wonderland. Tho difficulty is
not so much to know how to select ms to
know whore to begin in tho way of illus
tration.
Curiously enough, not q few scientific
pnradoxos nrc to be found in tho economy
of human vision. There is that old puzzlo
paradox, for cXample-onc which oven tho
intellect of q Kepler did not dcspiso-to
wit, how 1t Is that VIC SEQ objects erect
Notwithstanding tho well known fact that
the pictures on tho retina of tho eyo arc
inverted. Kcplcr, in his "Supplomcnt to
Vitcllio, was fain to conclude that the in
verified image, somehow OF other but
chiefly with tho aid Of tho other Senses
such rs that of touch, was "recti1cd' by
tho Judgment of tho observer. Later
psychologists have exercised their ingonu-
ity over tho sclfsamo problem Quito
lately, in scientific journal of no mean
rcputo, tho position was gravcly main
tanned that the observer having really no
other criterion of up or down than tho owl
dcnco of his own QnvertodD vision, upside
down was really tho same thing as down
side up, or, in other words erect
Another authority in tho same medium
had Il still moro ingenious solution of tho
difficulty. Noticing that tho image of u
lighted candle reflected on the rctina of an
eXcised eye appeared to him inverted, ho
reasoned that MS his own sense of vision
perceived tho image thus upside down,
therefore upon the rotina of tho percipicnt
proper 1t must really DO in exactly tho re-
verso position-namcly, erect. A clever
guess certainly, but one which lcnves tho
problem very much rs it was before. Tho
real explanation is apparently tho view
given by Professor Clcland of Glasgow
university in his "Animnl Physiology"
that the inversion of tho retinal image is
really no reason why the landscape should
appear to us inverted and that what wo
perceive is not the retinal image, but q
number of sensations excited by it, If wo
arc to explain, he adds, why tho landscape
Is not seen inverted we must explain why
1t Is not seen inside our heads. But in
spite of this lucid rationale of erect vision
probably tho only true ono-a popular
paradox tho question will doubtless ro-
main, Mt all events for Some time to como.
Ho was an acute observer who once TO-
marked, Tho more knowledge, tho moro
paradox" This would seem to DO true
nowadays, seeing that it is seriously
doubted in scientific circles if wo SEQ with
our eyes ut all. Professor Hirth, u recog-
nizcd authority Oh such subjects, contends
that it is only in u very limited sense that
we can be said to see with our eyes, and
that. in any Case wo do not perceive with
them, this latter function being reserved
fnt fntr ir,,y,o
termed by him the "intcrnal eyes" The
functions of tho rctina, Professor Hirth
maintains, have in tho past been very
gravcly overcStimatSd. Should this an
parent paradox be substantiatcd, it will no
longer DO tho conclusive argument it once
was considered to DO to aver that anything
happened because wo saw it with "our
eyes," 1t may DO added that tho above
paradox is rendered, if possible, still moro
paradoxical when it is soborly affirmed, in
sundry quarters-among others by Drs
Luys and Roscnthal-that it is not impos-
siblo to imagine theoretically, state of
matters in tho human organism in which
ear gate might upon occasion play the part
of eye gate and vice versa, tho discrimina-
ton of sound from color, ETC., depending,
not upon tho external nerve examinations,
which receive, as wo nro led to bclievo, a
wholly uniform stimulus, but upon tho
central apparatus situated within tho
brain. According to this theory, observes
recent commentator sound might for us
be literally translated into color, sonata
by Beethoven might seem u picture by
Raphael, and wo might enjoy a symphony
in blue and silver or q nocturno in black
and gold.
After such startling paradox as tho
above wo may be pardonod for being some
what skoptcal of anything connected with
tho pair Of organs which wo are accustom-
cd 60 call our eyes. And rightly so, for
paradox once more confronts us here. OF
having two eyes most OF us arc tolerably
assured. 1t seems, however, that our re-
mote ancestors were crcdibly possessed of
three, tho third being situated mt tho back
OF the head. Unfortunately all that re-
mains to us of this doubtless highly useful
organ is represented by tho pineal gland,
n soft body about tho size of q pea stu
atcd at the base Of the brain. This rudi-
mcntary structure, however, in some lower
forms of life-notably In ono kind OF lizard
has an opening to tho light and is I'M
doubtedly susceptible of visual impress
Sions.
Even space itself-cmpty space as wo
are accustomed To call it's no longer n
void. 1t literally teens with paradoxos.
A % ton armstrong gun hurts solid shot
distance of IL miles, the highest point in
the arc described by the shot being II, 600
feet above the carth's surface. Imagine,
now, that the projcctilc, instead of return
inc To tho cart N in IA GRADUALLY DESCENDING