The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-02-04
A Big Scientific Fool.

Professor G.. NJ. Stratton, of the Uni
yersity Of California. lived eight days in
the land of Upsidedown. in order to dis
prove the optical theory that one cannot
see things upright unless the retinal inn
age be inverted How the scientist con-
Quoted his experiment is thus described
by the New York Journal:
First, he made a mask to wear over his
face, with pair of lenses for eyes. The
lenses were at the end of little tubes four
inches long. Looking through them made
his head ache, and he had TO give UP one
of the tubes. Besides, the effect of using
two tubes, he found, was 10 receive two
images of the same object, which, OF
course, interfered with the success of the
experiment. With one tube Tor the LEFT
eye, however, he had no trouble. and he
wore this tube for eight days he had
made preliminary tests for shorter Pc
Rod, but had always confined his obser-
yaGons within the house. In the eight
day test he operated both indoor and
out.
The tube afforded a compass of IS de-
grees, or less than half the range OF sight
of one unobstructed eye, which is ITO de-
grees. This limit of his field of observa-
ton did not permit him TO see any part
of his body except the lower portion OF
the trunk and limbs. and the lower halves
of his arms These members became
strangely inverted The left hand SEEM
ed the right hand and vice versa; the
feet were reversed, and the legs, instead
of leading upward and toward him. were
directed downward and out of the field
of his vision. His chest seemed to De
cavity, his throat and head void.
All objects were inverted. Chairs and
tables seemed TO be glued to the ceiling;
the ceiling was the floor and the floor
the ceiling. The fireplace fire gave forth
flames that shot downward instead OF up
The effect of all this was to make his
head swim. He experienced the feeling
of a man taken suddenly sick at the stom-
ach. His brain was in whirl. He was
thoroughly dazed-
An ordinarily brave man would have de-
sisted from thus trying deliberately TO in
vert the natural order of things, but the
professor was inspired by the ardOr of
scientific enthusiasm. He had a theory to
prove, and he was willing to stand on his
head, or walk on his head, If need be,
for a whole week. This is practically
what he did.
And So walking up and down the town
in a passive, contemplative way. at even>
ing, writing the sum of his days expert
ences in a strangely hieroglyphic chirog-
rfaphy upon a paper pad turned upside
down, the professor lived those eight
strange days. AT last came the final hour
set to close the period of his experiment.
He had come to look upon his round port
hole upset view Of the world as being al
together proper and rational. 1t felt agree
able to him, he was comfortable when
looking out upon it, when, alasi the guide
slipped out the lenses and left the black
tube sticking there without glasses, and,
preStoi all was turned about again. This
was the same old world, but now chang
ed! Everything was upside down, sure
enough, and his head swan again. He
became dizzy, then sick at the stomach
and perspiration beaded his brow. Stag
gering, he grasped door-knob. He put
forth his right hand-but it was the wrong
doorl And thus, slowly and cautiously,
he had to accustom himself to a new or
der of things. Even his eyes rebelled, and
when the mask was torn off tears stream
ed forth because of the sharp pain due
to the sudden influx of light. He had
to sit in darkened room and there coax
his eyes back to their normal functions.
AS a result of his experiment the pro-
fessor claims to have established his the
DRY. 1.-THE difficulty of seeing things up
right by means of upright retinal mag
es,'' he says, seems to consist solely in
the resistance offered by the long-estab-
lished previous experience. There is GER
tainly no peculiar inherent difficulty aris-
ing from the new conditions.