Observations on the arrangement of the fibres in the optic nerve of the loligo and other animals.

  • Power, John H. (John Hatch), 1806-1863.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the arrangement of the fibres in the optic nerve of the loligo and other animals. 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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    tion, is either this primary law of nature, or a necessary conse- quence of it. To trace out the laws of nature by induction from the phenomena of nature, is all that true philosophy aims at and all that it can ever reach.” I’o apply this reasoning to the matter before us, he further observes, “ it appears to be a fact that every poitit of an object is seen in the direction of a right line passing from the picture of that point on the retina through the centre of the eye and “as this is a fact that holds universally and invariably, it must either be a law of nature, or the necessary consequence of some more general law of nature ; and according to the just rules of philosophizing, we may hold it for a law of nature, until some more general law be discovered whereof it is a necessary conse- quence, lohich / suspect can never be done.”* Without stopping to controvert the opinions of this philoso- pher, it appears, even from his own showing, that we may by possibility arrive at some more general law than that to which we have already attained : this allows a further prosecution of the inquiry. Muller, in his Elements of Physiology, vol. ii. p. 1172, observes: “The inversion of objects being a thing of which we never can become conscious in ourselves, it is not probable that nature has made in the brain or elsewhere any provision for the correction of the error, which would never have been known but for the institution of optical inquiries.” This opinion goes much 1‘urther in arresting anatomical investigation upon this subject, than any philosopher, even of the older schools, has ever gone. It is, notwithstanding, desirable in anatomy and physio- logy, as well as in other sciences, to go so far in our researches as nature herself invites us, and to endeavour, from the accumulation of facts of which we may become cognizant, to arrive as closely as possible at an explanation of the phenomena of life. The theory of Sir Charles Bell deserves attention ; it amounts All Inquiry into tlie Human Mind, p. 153, &c.