On the invention of stereoscopic glasses for single pictures : with preliminary observations on the stereoscope, and on the physiology of stereoscopic vision / by T. Wharton Jones.

  • Jones, Thomas Wharton, 1808-1891.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the invention of stereoscopic glasses for single pictures : with preliminary observations on the stereoscope, and on the physiology of stereoscopic vision / by T. Wharton Jones. 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.

    19/32 (page 19)
    ON STEREOSCOPIC VISION, OR THE VISUAL PERCEP- TION OP THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF SPACE— LENGTH, BREADTH, AND THICKNESS. The preceding disquisition on single vision with two eyes has prepared us to enter upon the examination of the natnre of stereoscopic vision, or the visual percep- tion of the three dimensions of space—length, breadth, and thickness—or solidity and depth. All that can be perceived of sohdity or depth by means of one eye may be represented by painting on a plain surface; but we have shown that it is not so in regard to what can be seen of them by means of the two eyes whilst thek axes are in a state of con- vergence. In the former case, a semblance of solidity or depth is seen; and this is all, as before pointed out, that a picture can represent: in the latter case, solidity or depth is perceived as really as it may be by the touch of two fingers ; and this, as also before pointed out, is what a single picture cannot represent. The perception of solidity or depth is owing to the position of the two eyes in the head at some distance apart, whereby each is fitted to receive on its retina a different perspective of the object, whilst the mind, in conformity with an original inborn law of the economy, does not perceive two superposed dissimilar images, but only a single one, and that, unhke either of the two perspectives, in fiiU relief or intaglio, as the case may be. When the object looked at is so very distant that the axes of the eyes are little or not at all convergent, not more of solidity or depth is seen with the two