The Portland daily press., 1896-11-11

a distance of more or less an inch or two.
At last l tried the experiment in
darkened closet, where, through longltu-
dfnal slit 1 let in the stream of very
bright, dazzling and glazing sunlight Eve
ry one of my hairs of my whiskers appeared
considerably more enlarged than ever pc
fore, and the inside of nearly all those mag
nified hair tubes seemed in their whole
length, as it were, lined with numerous hne
longitudinal parallel strokes, somewhat SIM
liar to the shading of pencil drawing, OF
as we often see it also in certain flowers,
leaves and plants. One or two of those tubes
appeared in beautiful rainbow like colors.
81 also tried these experiments with the
additional aid of a reflector, when l obtained
the same magnitied appearance of the hair
tubes some of them, perhaps, a little more
bright and distinct and showing many of
the orifices less round or pentagonal, but
rather somewhat uneven and irregular, lac
Grated, with break of continuity in their
rim, such as the fragments of glass tube
when roughly smashed would generally ap-
pear.
"Then 1 extended my observations to vari-
Gus small objects, such as horsehalr, blades
| of grass, needles, minute insects, etc. Inc re-
suit was Invariably the same. the pest
view. however, presented longitudinal op-
| jects, in linear form, such as needles. strings
and the lilze-which seemed to lengthen out,
| or stretch often quite considerably, besides
increasing in bulk and growing apparently
| thicker. At last l resorted to maghlIylng
glasses in order to find out whether ana IN
what manner or degree the appearance Oh
| the objects examined would differ from tha1
observed by the microscopical power OF the
naked natural eye. This has, then, served
as an independent and peri ct test to con-
| firm infinitely and with the utmost accuracy
| the entire result in all its particulars as had
been obtained by the preceding expert
ments.
NV ewes and the eyes of all those whom l
made to see just what saw and that exact
1 ly as saw it are perfectly normal IN every
| respect Persons whose sight is not defec-
tive can, without an effort or sense or strain,
| at once perceive those magnified appear
| ances. Almost every one will find at first
some slight difficulty IT, SO doing, but with
little patience will readily become accus-
toned 20 the strange sight. Those, how
ever whose visual powers are even In the
least degree Initiated by anything anomalous
or abnormal, such as myopia, presbyopia,
hypermetropia astigmatiomus, staphyloma
posticum, etc., in short, by anything that in
1.-THE domain of opthalm ology would come
under the head OF morbid states OF patho-
logical conditions of the eye, cannot reason
ably be expected to possess or acquire the
necessary aptitude for these microscop-
ic perceptions.
awe must also distinguish between this
constant, continuous and permanent mi
croscopic power and those merely accidental
and tansitory states of morbid exaltation OF
the sight that are known as oxyopia ano
megalopsy in certain diseased conditions Of
! the eye Moreover imagination, as it may
j probably be urged, fancy or self-deception
are altogether out of the question in this
case, since the phenomena under considera'
ton can be reproduced at will and may be
at any time verified by anyone ever SO little
interested in the matter. Here only the
fact in itself may be stated, without oul
INDUCING for the present in any sort o.
hypothesis and explanation
"When applied to objects not tangible, tt
things lying in surface, then something
equally surprising will be observed, viz.
two refracted rays and the natural naked
human eye will exhibit the double refrac
| ton of light very much the same as that OF
} the Iceland spar. In printed or writer
page all letters will appear double, one SCI
g in their original blackness and the other
| considerably less dark the latter appear
> ing, as the case may be, either behind or
5 somewhat lower, now and then even al
encircling the former