Record

AP - Archived Papers
- 35 - Archived papers: volume 35, scientific papers submitted the Royal Society unpublished or abstracted, 1851-1854

RefNo	AP/35/1
Level	Item
Title	Unpublished paper, 'An enquiry into some of the circumstances and principles which regulate the production of pictures in the retina of the human eye, with their measure of endurance, their colour, and changes' by William Scoresby
Date	17 November 1853 - 30 May 1854
Description	Scoresby's investigations embrace three distinct cases: the case of achromatic pictures; that of coloured pictures of uncoloured objects, derived simply or mainly from the influence of light on the eye; and that of the spectra of coloured objects, together with certain applications of the results obtained to other optical characteristics, determinations or phenomena. The general mode of experiment employed in these researches is described as 'the viewing of illuminated objects with a steady fixed gaze at a special point, and then determining the impression on the retina by examining the images developed with closed eyes'. The time of viewing the objects varied from a momentary glance up to half a minute, more rarely to a minute. The mode of eliciting the impression was, primarily, by closing the eyelids into gentlest contact, whilst the head was kept unmoved, and the eyelids steady in their original direction. Scoresby recounts the results of these experiments. He notes that in viewing impressions on the retina with closed eyes, all the pictures appear to occupy a position externally, similar to the effect when the objects are directly seen; and that the spectra derived from moderate or strong degrees of transmitted light have prevalently the character of transparency, and those from very low degrees, most ordinarily, of opacity. In a follow-up paper, dated 30 May 1854, Scoresby shares the results of his inquiries concerning phenomena in optical spectra, and the results in respect of colour in the images impressed on the retina, as derived simply from the influence of light. Annotations in pencil and ink throughout. Subject: Physiology / Optometry Received 19 November 1853 / 31 May 1854. Written by Scoresby in Torquay [Cornwall, England]. Whilst the Royal Society declined to publish this paper in full, an abstract of the paper was published in volume 6 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'An inquiry into some of the circumstances and principles which regulate the production of pictures on the retina of the human eye, with their measure of endurance, their colours and changes' and in volume 7 of Abstracts of the Papers Printed in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London [later Proceedings of the Royal Society] as 'An inquiry into some of the circumstances and principles which regulate the production of pictures on the retina of the human eye, with their measure of endurance, their colours and changes. - Part II'.
Extent	134p
Format	Manuscript
PhysicalDescription	Ink and graphite pencil on paper
Digital images	View item on Science in the Making
AccessStatus	Open
RelatedMaterial	DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1854.0027
RelatedMaterial	DOI: 10.1098/rspl.1850.0136
RelatedRecord	RR/2/218
RelatedRecord	RR/2/219

Fellows associated with this archive

Code	PersonName	Dates
NA6138	Scoresby; William (1789 - 1857)	1789 - 1857

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