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vol. title: Miscellaneous Scraps from January 1st 1878 vol. period: 1875-1878 pages in vol.: 153 |
A Dead Man's Eye
If, as Professor Huxley somewhere observes, the pathways of science are strewn with the murdered myths of antiquity, it is equally true that of late physiological inquiry has been instrumental in resuscitating many a previously-rejected superstition. From comparatively old times—for the nineteenth century—has descended the curiious supposition that the object last visible to the dying eye is imperishably photographed upon the dead retina. Most readers will recall to mind tales of retributive justice based upon the identification and conviction of a murderer through the agency of his photograph in a dead man’s eye; and at least once within the last ten years the plot of an acting drama, not to mention half a dozen sensation novels founded upon the same thesis, has been made to turn upon the terrible witness of such a rogues’ gallery. The fact—for it is the fact that such testimony is possible—has been authoritatively denied, over and over again, by physiologists of established reputation, sneered at as a relic of metaphysical speculation reinforced by morbid fancy, and finally scoffed down as among the utter impossibilities. But it turns out, as has often been the case before, that this grim conception of poetic justice was founded in fact, and that under certain circumstances the development of such in articulo mortis images, latent though they are, as identifiable photographs, is a very simple and practicable process.
The moral is that whatever is beautiful has always, in some strange way, a capacity for rising from the dead, and contains within itself the germ of its own resurrection. Says a German mystic, from whom Mr. Emerson has caught the inspiration of more than one aphorism:—“Die Rose ist ohne Warme, sie bluhet weil sie bluhet,” typifying beauty, of course, under the symbol of that poetically hackneyed blossom. Plato, dreamiest of all dreamers, has the same fancy that Mr. Emerson has parodied from the German in
“For if the eye was made for seeing, |
in one of his wonderful dialogues. Himself and cronies are engaged in discussing the beautiful ewer goblets of the Falernian, when, in one of the pregnant pauses of the occasion, the philosopher observes as follows:—“That beauty is neither immortal, like the gods, nor, like men, mortal, but in the verdure of the valleys lives and blossoms for a day, having another life to-morrow.” What the old man means is, that while in her externality beauty is ephemeral, in her interior reality she never dies, wherefore he adds that in the blossoms of the valley she is constantly dying and constantly rising again from the dead.
The regeneration of this old myth is in its way an example of that longevity of all things beautiful, that may well point a moral to such scientific Alcibiades as have dared to speculate whether poetry can co-exist with science. When, as in this instance, a deeper science constantly verifies what a shallow science has denied—the eternity of the beautiful because it is beautiful—one need not trouble one’s self to argue, where argument is not only loss of time but loss of temper and patience also.
However, a glance at the evidence. Leydig and other eminent physiologists have so repeatedly stated the one isolated fact that the fresh retina in frogs and other animals has a reddish tinge, that the point is familiar to the most cursory reader of histological treatises. This fact alone, though significant, demonstrated nothing, and for years it lay fallow. Recently Professor Boll (Zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Retina), the celebrated Du Bois-Raymond and Professor Kühne (Ueber der Sehpurpur) have contributed very important data to retinal physiology, all of which have been printed within the last two years. It appears from these as yet untranslated essays and volumes that not only is the living retina always red, but that its color is subject to material alterations from the action of light. The coloration is, it should be premised, limited to the external aspect of the retinal rods, a considerable proportion of which, at least in the frog, are also of a bluish-green tinge. It exists in all animals having retinal rods, invertebrates as well as vertebrates. Boll having ascertained it in the cephalopods and an anthropods, and in all the fishes and amphibia brought under examination. In reptilians and birds the colored oil globules—most beautiful microscopic objects—interfere with its detection; and in the retina of the lizard and coluber natrix, which offer no retinal rods to scientific inspection, the nervous organism of vision being furnished with cones only. Kuhne was unable to discover any trace of coloring matter. It is absent in the hawk, behind the numerous spots furnished with oil globules, though present elsewhere, and the long and delicate rods of the owl (Athene noctua) are of a red or brilliant intensity not occurring in day-ranging animals, faint in its tint, and fading very slowly on exposure to light. In man the retinal rod was first observed by Zuckerkandl in examining the eyes of an executed criminal. Adler states that the color is absent in the eyes of blind persons.
These are dull details, only adduced because they are the material symbols of a nascent new theory of the perception of color and probably of color blindness. The important fact is that the retinal rod is very sensitive to the action of light, persists after death for from fifteen to twenty-four hours if the eye is kept in a darkened room, but is rapidly whitened to a silvery lustre in a few minutes when exposed to ordinary daylight, although it may in some animals be regenerated after a post-mortem whitening by placing it in a dark box.
The rapidity of this post mortem process depends upon the constitution of the light to which the retina is exposed, as well as upon its intensity. The rays of the spectrum between the yellow and the green possess, according to Kuhne, a peculiar influence in this respect, while the retina fades very gradually indeed when the rods are only exposed to the rays between the green and the violet end of the spectrum. As concerns the retina, red light darkens the rods until they exhibit a deep brown, which, in fading to red again under exposure to ordinary light, passes through a yellow stage. Yellow rays only render the color clearer; green rays of moderate intensity produce a purple alteration of the red rods, while rendering the bluish-green ones more brilliant; blue and violet have approximately, but in less degree, the same action as green, and ultra violet no action at all. It will be gathered from these data that retinal inquiry is likely to result in a new and well-grounded theory of color and of color perception—is a word, in the resolution of one of the most intricate problems of art criticism, that of the relation of color to nervous impression, feeling, sentiment and idea.
But the picturesque aspect of the subject and the aspect in which it appeals to the imagination most specifically is, after all, the old question as to the possibility of obtaining persistent images on the dead retina; a question that has been settled affirmatively by Kuhne, who, having placed the decapitated head of a dead rabbit in a dark box, exposed it, in the first instance, to the light of a window of stained glass; then hardened the retina of the eye in a five per cent solution of alum for twenty-four hours in the dark and thus obtained a distinct and identifiable photograph of the window upon its red posterior aspect. Such images are scientifically styled optograms, and retinas thus treated can be dried and mounted for permanent illustration of the curiosities of retinal physiology. The question has been carefully tested recently with eyes of horses and dogs in the dissecting room of one of our colleges, with the result of finding, as maintained by German physiologists, that such optograms can be readily taken within one hour after the death of the animal, and developed by rapidly dissecting out the retina and immediately immersing it in a ten per cent solution of common salt. It is, therefore, one of the undeniable verities of science that, under favorable circumstances, it would be a matter of no serious difficulty to identify a murderer by this process, the fact furnishing only another illustration of the proverb that the strangest dreams of romance are often verified by reality. No doubt a Coroner's jury would treat the revelations of a dead retina with a little pardonable disrespect to begin with, but a little demonstration would suffice to convince even the most sceptical of professional jurymen.—Philadelphia Telegraph.
Alex. H. Stephens`s New Metric System
Washington
, March 29.—A bill introduced in the House to-day by Representative Stephens, of Georgia, to promote the general use of the metric system, after reciting a preamble to the effect that the system has made little progress notwithstanding its great merits and its authorization by law by virtue of the act of Congress of July 27, 1866, and it is believed to be capable of simplification, so as to remove many impediments to its general use, the bill authorizes the use of the modified metric system and the continued use of any system now permitted by law is not prohibited, the true intent and meaning of the act being not to enforce any particular system but to provide for the public convenience by adaptation to its circumstances and exigencies; the metric system being capable of indefinite expansion to suit the uses of mankind in business and science. The following are the metric tables proposed by the bill.100 pairs make a nail.
100 nails make a metre.
100 metres make a kile.
10,000 square meters make a great acre.
100 drops make a spoon.
100 spoons make a quart.
100 quarts make a cask.
100 seeds make a corn.
100 corns make a nut.
100 nuts make a bi-pound or bip.
1,000 bips make a ton.
Joining Church in the British Army
A soldier has the choice of five different kinds of religion; but while he is permitted to choose for himself he must choose one or another. No man is permitted to absent himself from divine service on the ground that he professes no religion at all, or that he professes a religion for which no provision is made in the regulations. He may be a Buddhist, a Darwinist, a Pantheist or Polytheist, if he likes, in principle, but he must be a Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist or Baptist in practice. There is no evasion of this rule whatever. Attempts are sometimes made to evade it, however.
A recruit when asked to indicate his theological preference by the sergeant of the company replied:—
“I hain’t got no religion, an’ I don’t want none.”
“You must attend a church of some kind—one of those I have named to you,” said the sergeant.
“— my —— eyes if I do,” said he.
The sergeant wheeled his man before the officer of the company.
“What is your religion?” asked the officer, after the matter was explained to him.
“I hain’t got none. I’m a hinfidel, Your Worship.”
“A what?”
“A hinfidel—a free thinker.”
“O, I see. Very well. We usually send persons of your faith to the Roman Catholic church. You want a course of theological discipline. The Catholics usually go to church early in the morning, and they are usually kept an hour longer than the others. That’s the church for you, my man, depend upon it. At the same time permit me to say you are free to think as much as you like. Sergeant, put him down a Roman Catholic.”
Instead of evading the regulation by an open confession of infidelity, he found himself obliged to go to church earlier on Sundays, and remain a considerable time longer than if he had made a choice when given the chance.—Boston Bulletin.
Why Popes Change Their Names
It is a fact generally known that monks and nuns on assuming their vows and popes on ascending the Pontifical throne usually change their names. The reason of this change in the case of the popes is a superstitious belief that unless this is done the new Pontiff will not live long. The custom has prevailed since it was inaugurated in 955 by Octavian Conti, who assumed the name and title of John XII. Julius Medici would have made a breach had he been permitted, but his friends prevailed upon him to take the name of Clement, he being the seventh pope to bear that name. Thirty-two years later, in 1555, Marcellus Servin was elected and insisted upon retaining his own name. As Marcellus II., therefore, he ascended the throne on the 9th of April. He was a young man and in robust health, and yet he lived but twenty-one days after his elevation. Since that time no pope has ventured to offend against the tradition. It is a little singular that while the name John has been a favorite one, no less than twenty-two popes having chosen it, none have chosen it since the death of John XXII., in 1416. The first pope bearing the name Pius took the position in 142, and the name did not reappear after his death till 1458. The original name of Pius IX., the present Pope, was Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti.
Nevada`s Wonderful Cave
Carson, Nov. 27.—For many years there has been living in the Walker river range of mountains a man named Algernon B. Grant, who very rarely sought the haunts or habitations of white men. His ostensible occupation was prospecting for precious metals, but the fact of his long and uninterrupted residence in those wilds pointed to the fact of his non-success in that direction. Mr. Grant was in this city a few days since, and the following is an extract from his wonderful and interesting history: He is a native of Bourbon county, Kentucky, having been born there in 1825. He was sent to Harvard College, where he graduated in 1846, second in his class. In 1851 he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Kentucky. He enjoyed a lucrative practice in that city until the breaking out of the rebellion, when he entered the Confederate service, receiving a commission as Major in one of the Kentucky regiments. In the mean time Grant had married and gathered a little family around him. These he at that time had taken to the Southern portion of Kentucky, and placed them under the protection of relatives.
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Editor's notes