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Essential MATLAB and Octave 1st Edition Jesus Rogel-
Salazar (Author) Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Jesus Rogel-Salazar (Author)
ISBN(s): 9781482234664, 1138413119
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 3.61 MB
Year: 2014
Language: english
 Mathematics

Rogel-Salazar
“Essential MATLAB® and Octave is a superb introductory textbook for those interested in learning how

ESSENTIAL MATLAB
to solve scientific, engineering, and mathematical problems using two of the most popular mathematical
programming tools available. The book assumes almost no prior experience with programming or scientific
programming, and carefully takes the reader step by step through the use of the two languages for solving
increasingly complex problems. …Dr. Rogel-Salazar has put a huge amount of effort into making the book
accessible and user friendly in a way that makes it suitable even for the most novices of programmers.”
—Dr. Shashank Virmani, Brunel University London, UK

“The text provides a clear and easy-paced introduction to MATLAB® and Octave. The presentation
is example led and contains plenty of useful applications drawn from mathematics, physics, and
engineering. This beginner’s handbook will suit a broad scientific readership.”
—Dr. Alan McCall, University of Hertfordshire, UK

Learn Two Popular Programming Languages in a Single Volume

Widely used by scientists and engineers, well-established MATLAB® and open-source Octave are similar
software programs providing excellent capabilities for data analysis, visualization, and more. By means
of straightforward explanations and examples from different areas in mathematics, engineering,
finance, and physics, Essential MATLAB and Octave explains how MATLAB and Octave are powerful tools
applicable to a variety of problems. This text provides an introduction that reveals basic structures and
syntax, demonstrates the use of functions and procedures, outlines availability in various platforms,
and highlights the most important elements for both programs.

®
AND
Effectively Implement Models and Prototypes Using Computational Models

This text requires no prior knowledge. Self-contained, it allows the reader to use the material
whenever needed rather than follow a particular order. Compatible with both languages, the book

OCTAVE
material incorporates commands and structures that allow the reader to gain a greater awareness of
MATLAB and Octave, write their own code, and implement their scripts and programs within a variety
of applicable fields. It is always made clear when particular examples apply only to MATLAB or only to
Octave, allowing the book to be used flexibly depending on readers’ requirements.

Essential MATLAB and Octave offers an introductory course in MATLAB and Octave programming,
and is a perfect resource for students in physics, mathematics, statistics, engineering, and any other
subjects that require the use of computers to solve numerical problems.

K23005
ISBN: 978-1-4822-3463-3
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9 781482 234633

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 ESSENTIAL
MATLAB®

AND OCTAVE

K23005_FM.indd 1 10/1/14 3:16 PM

K23005_FM.indd 2 10/1/14 3:16 PM
 ESSENTIAL
MATLAB ®

AND OCTAVE

Jesús Rogel-Salazar

Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

K23005_FM.indd 3 10/1/14 3:16 PM

MATLAB® is a trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. and is used with permission. The MathWorks does not warrant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book.
This book’s use or discussion of MATLAB® software or related products does not constitute endorsement or sponsorship by The MathWorks of a particular pedagogical
approach or particular use of the MATLAB® software.

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To A. J. Johnson
 vii

Contents

1 MATLAB® and Octave: The Essential Essentials 1

1.1 MATLAB and Octave 1
1.1.1 Obtaining MATLAB 2
1.1.2 Obtaining Octave 3
1.2 Starting Up and Closing Down 3
1.2.1 Windows Systems 3
1.2.2 UNIX 4
1.2.3 Mac OS Systems 5
1.2.4 Command Line Help 6
1.2.5 Demos in MATLAB 8
1.3 Using MATLAB and Octave as a Calculator 8
1.4 Numbers and Formats 9
1.5 Variables 10
1.5.1 Variable Names 11
1.6 Suppressing Output 13
1.7 Built-In Functions 15
1.7.1 Trigonometric Functions 15
1.7.2 Other Elementary Functions 15
 viii j. rogel-salazar

1.8 Characters, String and Text 17

1.8.1 Comparing Strings 20
1.8.2 Converting Strings to Values 21
1.9 Saving a Session 21
1.10 Summary 24
1.11 Exercises 25

2 Vectors and Vector Operators 27

2.1 Vectors 27
2.2 The Colon Notation (:) 32
2.3 Extracting Parts of a Vector 34
2.4 Column Vectors 37
2.5 Transposition of Vectors 38
2.6 Vector Multiplication 42
2.7 Scalar Product, * 42
2.8 Dot-Star Product, .* 46
2.9 Dot-Division of Vectors, ./ 48
2.10 Dot-Power of Vectors, .^ 50
2.11 Summary 51
2.12 Exercises 53

3 Matrices and Matrix Operators 57

3.1 Size of a Matrix 59
3.2 Transpose of a Matrix 60
 essential matlab ® and octave ix

3.3 Special Matrices 62

3.3.1 Square Matrices 64

3.3.2 The Identity Matrix 65

3.4 Diagonal Matrices 67

3.5 Building Matrices 70

3.6 Tabulating Functions 73

3.7 Extracting Parts of Matrices 75

3.8 Matrix Multiplication 79

3.8.1 Dot-Star Product of Matrices, .* 80

3.8.2 Matrix-Vector Products 82

3.8.3 Matrix-Matrix Products 84

3.9 Sparse Matrices 86

3.10 Systems of Linear Equations 93

3.11 Summary 96

3.12 Exercises 98

4 Plotting 103
4.1 Plotting Simple Functions 103

4.2 Information in the Plot 107

4.2.1 Titles and Labels 108

4.2.2 Grids 108

4.2.3 Line Styles and Colours 109

 x j. rogel-salazar

4.3 Multiple Plots 110

4.4 Holding Figures 111
4.5 Subplots 113
4.6 Formatted Text 115
4.7 Changing Axes 118
4.8 Plotting Surfaces 121
4.9 More Plots 125
4.9.1 Log Plots 126
4.9.2 Plots in Other Coordinate Systems 128
4.9.3 Saving Plots 130
4.10 Summary 132
4.11 Exercises 134

5 Programming MATLAB® and Octave 137

5.1 Script Files 137
5.1.1 Text Editors 138
5.1.2 Adding Comments 139
5.2 Flow of a Programme 139
5.2.1 Relational Operators 140
5.2.2 Relational Operators with Vectors and Matrices 142
5.2.3 Logical Operators 146
5.2.4 Selecting Elements with Logical Operators 148
5.3 Loops in MATLAB and Octave 153
5.3.1 For Loop 155
5.3.2 While Loop 158
 essential matlab ® and octave xi

5.4 Conditionals: If... Then... Else... 161

5.5 Procedures and Functions with m-Files 164
5.5.1 Putting It All Together: m-Files 164
5.5.2 Functions in m-Files 168

5.6 Built-In Functions 172

5.6.1 Matrix and Vector Functions 173
5.6.2 Trigonometric Functions 174
5.6.3 Functions for Complex Numbers 175
5.6.4 Exponential and Logarithmic Functions 176
5.6.5 Rounding and Reminder Functions 176
5.6.6 Special Functions 177
5.6.7 Number Theoretic Functions 178
5.6.8 Coordinate Transformations 178
5.6.9 Statistics 179
5.6.10 Data Interpolation 179
5.6.11 Polynomials 180
5.6.12 Finite Differences 181
5.6.13 Differential Equations 181
5.6.14 Optimisation and Root Finding 181
5.6.15 Fourier Transforms 181

5.7 Function Handles 182

5.7.1 Anonymous Functions 183
5.7.2 Arrays of Function Handles 184
5.7.3 Function Handles as Arguments 185
 xii j. rogel-salazar

5.8 Debugging 187

5.9 Timing 191
5.10 Reading and Writing Files 192
5.10.1 Formatted Files 193
5.10.2 Reading Formatted Files 193
5.10.3 Writing Formatted Files 196
5.10.4 Binary Files 198
5.10.5 Writing Binary Files 198
5.10.6 Reading Binary Files 199
5.11 Summary 200
5.12 Exercises 202

6 MATLAB® and Octave in Action 205

6.1 Linear Algebra: Linear Combinations 206
6.2 Linear Algebra: Eigenvalues and Eigenvectors 208
6.3 Portfolio Risk: Minimum Variance and Target Portfolios 212
6.3.1 Minimum Variance Portfolio 213
6.3.2 Target Portfolio 216
6.4 Differential Equations: Predator-Prey Model 219
6.4.1 Ordinary Differential Equation System in MATLAB 221
6.4.2 Ordinary Differential Equation System in Octave 222
6.4.3 Solving the Predator-Prey System 223
6.5 Signal Processing: Fourier Transform 228
6.5.1 Amplitude Spectrum 229
6.5.2 Noise Filtering 230
 essential matlab ® and octave xiii

6.6 Physics: The Wave Equation 235

6.6.1 Oscillations in a String 235
6.6.2 Oscillations in a Circular Membrane 238
6.7 Quantum Mechanics: The Schrödinger Equation and Pauli Matrices 242
6.7.1 Particle in an Infinite Potential Well 242
6.7.2 Pauli Spin Matrices 245
6.8 Summary 248
6.9 Exercises 250

Differences between MATLAB® and Octave 253

Bibliography 257

Index 259
 xv

List of Figures

3.1 Non-zero elements of the matrix p_new defined in the text.

The command spy can be used to obtain a visual represen-
tation of the non-zero elements of a matrix. 73

4.1 Plot of the function y = cos ( 4x ) generated with 21 sam-

ple points. The low sampling generates a jagged profile. 106
4.2 Plot of the function y = cos ( 4x ) generated with 200 sam-
ple points. Increasing the number of points gives us a smoother
curve. 107
4.3 Plot of the function y = cos ( 4x ) including a title and la-
bels for each axis. 109
4.4 Multiple plots in the same figure can be placed using the
plot command. 112
4.5 Subplots can be graphed with the command subplot. Each
subplot can be given its own labels, grids, titles, etc. 115
4.6 Multiple plots in the same figure can be placed using the
plot command. 119
4.7 Graph of y = x2 for values of x between 10 and 20. The
y-axis is showing values between − 2 and 500. 121
4.8 A surface plot obtained with the surfl command. Please
note that this requires the generation of a grid with the com-
mand meshgrid. 124
4.9 The projection of the surface shown in Figure 4.8. This plot
was obtained using the contour command. 126
xvi j. rogel-salazar

4.10 Comparison of the plot of the function f ( x ) = 4 exp ( 2x )

in linear Cartesian coordinates (top panel) and in a semi-
logarithmic scale (bottom panel). 128
4.11 Polar plot for the function r = 2 ( 1 − cos ( t )) as gener-
ated by MATLAB; Octave will produce a similar but sim-
pler graphic. The heart-like shape of the plot inspired the
name used for these functions: cardioids. 130
4.12 Plot for the function r = 2 ( 1 − cos ( t )) in Cartesian co-
ordinates. The coordinate transformation was handled by
the pol2cart command. 131

5.1 Plotting functions with singularities leads to figures that

do not represent the true characteristics of the function. In
this case we are showing what happens when trying a naive
approach when plotting the tangent function y = tan ( x ) . 153
5.2 The use of logical operators can help us improve those plots
where singularities may arise. Here we can indeed distin-
guish the important features of the tangent function y =
tan ( x ) . 154
5.3 Output of the script called my_plot_script.m as shown in
the code described in this chapter, with frequency=1 and
whichplot=1. 167
5.4 Output of the script called my_plot_script.m. for frequency=3
and whichplot=2. 169

6.1 Solving the predator-prey model given by Equations (6.42)

and (6.43). Panel a) shows the dynamics of the predator and
prey populations, whereas panel b) shows the behaviour
in phase space. 227
6.2 Sample of the signal given by Equation (6.47) for an inter-
val of 2 seconds at a sample rate of 0.01. 229
6.3 Amplitude spectrum of the signal given by Equation (6.47).
Notice the peaks at the frequencies of 3 Hz and 4.5 Hz, with
amplitudes 3 and 8, respectively. 231
 essential matlab ® and octave xvii

6.4 Panel a) Noisy signal generated by adding random noise

to original sampling. Panel b) Amplitude spectrum of the
noisy signal. 233
6.5 Corrected signal after applying a low amplitude filter to the
noisy input. 234
6.6 Initial condition for the simulation of an oscillating string. 236
6.7 Modes of a 2D circular membrane, for m=0,1 and n=1,2. 241
6.8 Eigenfunctions n=1,2,3,4 for a quantum particle confined
in an infinite potential well. 246
 xix

List of Tables

1.1 Some of the types that are supported in MATLAB and Oc-
tave. 9
1.2 Some number formats used by MATLAB and Octave. 10
1.3 Some of the mathematical functions defined in MATLAB
and Octave. 16

4.1 Colours and line styles that can be used by MATLAB. 110
4.2 Some graphics formats supported by the command print. 132

5.1 Some relational operators supported by Matlab and Octave. 140

5.2 Some logical operators supported by MATLAB and Octave. 146
5.3 Permissions for opening files with fopen. 193
5.4 Format definitions for reading and writing data. 195
5.5 Control characters used in formatting output. 197
5.6 Precision specifiers for reading and writing binary data. 199
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
contrast to our own. Yet the deadening of the sense is scarcely
noticed, since its results are of little consequence as compared with
those which follow loss of sight or loss of hearing. Many a man, as
he grows older, declares that the cook of his club has lost his
cunning, or frankly asserts that he “no longer cares for kickshaws.
Cold beef, beer, and pickles, are good enough for him.” He little
suspects that his palate has lost its power of distinguishing the
flavours of dainty meats and wines. Others continue to be exacting,
because their imaginations still endow food with the qualities which
they remember, just as people eat preserved asparagus or tinned
peas because they look—however little they taste—like the gifts of
Spring.
Taste accompanies the reception of food in the mouth. We have
no knowledge of the situation of our own olfactory membranes, and
therefore we suppose that a flavour, whether it be due to stimulation
of taste-bulbs or olfactory membrane, is in the mouth. The odour of
a flower we mentally project to a distance, because we associate the
sight of a flower with its perfume. A dog, able to judge the freshness
or staleness of a scent, must project its sensations of smell in the
same way in which we project our sensations of sight. It forms an
estimate, of a sort, of the time that it will take in reaching the source
of the scent. Its excitement increases as the trail grows fresher.
Taste and smell are heavily laden with affective tone. When
disagreeable, the feeling which they evoke is near akin to pain. It
may gather head until, like hunger, it causes the discharge of motor
neurones; but under its influence food is ejected, instead of
preparation being made for its reception.
Taste and smell are senses which afford us no information with
regard to time or space. They give rise to massive sensations. Such
sensations, devoid of detail, produce a frame of mind rather than
thought. The smell of tobacco does not distract attention. On the
contrary, the steady flow of impulses to which it gives rise helps to
inhibit, to subdue, the yapping of more exigent sensations. And
since sensations of smell have no features of their own, they form a
background to sensations of other kinds, entering with them into
memory. No two scenes are exactly alike. One cannot recall another.
But the scent of syringa is always the same. Wherever smelled, it
opens the pathways in the brain in which were first associated a
June evening and syringa, with a scene and a situation upon which
memory loves to dwell.
 CHAPTER XIII
VISION

The eye is enclosed in a globe of fibrous tissue, of which the

front part, or cornea, being transparent, admits light. The epithelial
layer which covers the cornea, conjunctiva, is also transparent. No
bloodvessels enter these colourless tissues, unless as the result of
inflammation due to infection or to exposure to sunshine or dust. For
nutrition they are dependent upon the plasma which, exuding from,
and returning to, the vessels which surround them, circulates in their
tissue-spaces. In advancing years, when the circulation is less brisk,
a ring of opaque tissue, arcus senilis, encroaches on the cornea. In
the interior of the globe, just behind the cornea, is a projecting shelf,
formed of a ring of tissue supported by buttresses, ciliary processes.
It is continued inwards as the iris, a muscular curtain. The “hyaloid
membrane” lines the back portion of the globe. Continued on the
inner side of the ciliary processes, it splits into several layers, which
pass, one in front of the lens, others to its edge, to which they are
attached, and still another, very thin, behind it. Since it holds the
lens in place, the anterior portion of the hyaloid membrane is known
as its “suspensory ligament.” Thus the eyeball is divided into three
chambers. The anterior is filled with watery lymph, aqueous humour.
In it, resting on the anterior surface of the suspensory ligament of
the lens, is the iris. The middle chamber contains the lens. The
posterior chamber is filled with a liquid jelly, vitreous humour.
By the contraction of the circular fibres of the iris, the aperture of
the pupil is diminished, limiting the light which enters the globe. This
adjustment occurs when the illumination is bright. It is also brought
into action for the purpose of cutting out divergent rays, which
would not be clearly focussed when objects near at hand are looked
at. The posterior surface of the iris and the inner surfaces of the
ciliary processes are covered with dense black pigment. It is this
pigment, showing through the uncoloured connective tissue and
plain muscle-fibres of which the iris is composed, that gives their
colour to grey and blue eyes. In many eyes the iris contains a brown
pigment in its substance.

Fig. 27.— Horizontal Section through the Right Eye.

The slight depression in the retina in the
axis of the globe is the fovea centralis,
or yellow spot; the optic nerve pierces
the ball to its inner or nasal side. The
lens, with its suspensory ligament,
separates the aqueous from the
vitreous humour. On the front of the
lens rests the iris, covered on its
 posterior surface with black pigment.
On either side of the lens is seen a
ciliary process, with the circular fibres
of the ciliary muscle cut transversely,
and its radiating fibres disposed as a
fan.
The back portion of the globe of the eye is covered with a
curtain, the retina, formed by the spreading out of the fibres of the
optic nerve in front of various layers of nerve-cells and the sensory
cells of the organ of vision, rods and cones. The retina lies between
the hyaloid membrane, which encloses the vitreous humour, and a
layer of pigment which “backs” it, as a photographer backs a plate
when he proposes to use it towards a source of light—to take a
photograph of a window from within a room. The serrated margin of
the retina is somewhat anterior to the equator of the eyeball. The
pigment which backs the retina is contained in a sheet of cells which
belongs to the pouch of brain that extended outwards towards the
eye-pit (p. 334). Properly speaking, therefore, it is a layer of the
retina.
 Fig. 28.—Diagrams showing the Mode of Formation of the Crystalline
Lens.
A, A pit in the epithelium on the surface of
the head has closed into a hollow
sphere. B, The cells of the posterior
wall of this sphere are growing forward,
as the fibres of the lens which traverse
its whole thickness, with the exception
of the cubical epithelium on its front.
Three sets of tissues take part in the development of the eyeball.
(1) The epithelium covering the surface of the head is depressed as
a pit, which gradually closes into a hollow sphere. This sphere, when
its cavity is filled up, owing to the great elongation of the cells of its
posterior half, becomes the lens. It breaks away from the rest of the
epithelium of the surface, which clears to transparency as that part
of the conjunctiva termed the “corneal epithelium.” (2) The retina, as
already stated, is a hollow outgrowth from the interbrain. As this
pouch approaches the lens, its anterior half is pushed back into the
posterior half, forming a cup with a double wall. The anterior, or
inner, sheet of the bowl of the cup develops into the nervous layers
of the retina, the posterior sheet into its pigmented epithelium. (3)
Connective tissues are transformed into the other constituents of the
globe—cornea, iris, vitreous humour, etc. The globe is complete,
except at a spot on the nasal side of its posterior pole where the
optic nerve pierces it.
The bloodvessels of the retina, entering with the optic nerve,
ramify on its anterior surface. Under ordinary circumstances we
ignore the shadows which they cast, as we ignore the blind spot
which coincides with the disc of insensitive tissue presented by the
end of the optic nerve, and many other imperfections; but it was
shown by Purkinje many years ago that by a very simple manœuvre
they may be forced upon our notice.
 Fig. 29.—Purkinje’s Shadows.
A beam of light traversing the eyeball in
the direction A throws a shadow of the
vessel v, lying on the front of the
retina, upon the sensitive layer at its
back. When the light is moved from A
to B the shadow moves from a to b.
The mind, supposing the shadow to be
a dark mark on the nearest wall or
screen, infers that this mark moves
from A′ to B′.

By making use of Purkinje’s figures, it can be proved that the

level in the retina at which undulations of light give rise to the
impulses which evoke visual sensations coincides with the back of its
anterior sheet—i.e., with the layer of rods and cones. A person
stares fixedly at a white sheet in a dimly lighted room while an
assistant, by the help of a lens, focuses a strong light on the front of
his eyeball, to the outer side of the cornea. The rays, traversing the
white of the eye, throw shadows of the retinal vessels on the layers
behind them; but this not being the way in which light normally
enters the eyeball, the person experimented upon supposes that he
sees the shadows in front of him. He mentally projects them on to
the white sheet. The pattern of his retinal vessels appears on the
sheet in grey streaks. When the spot of light is moved, the shadow-
pattern shifts, and in the same direction; since, as the retinal image
is reversed, a movement from right to left is interpreted by
consciousness as a movement from left to right. Given the angle
through which the light is moved, and the apparent displacement of
the shadows, it is a simple matter to calculate the distance behind
the bloodvessels of the sensitive layer of the eye. So definite are
Purkinje’s figures that the shadows of individual blood-corpuscles
can be followed, and the rate at which they are moving in the
capillaries of the retina calculated.
The retina is the organ of vision. Cornea, iris, lens, vitreous
humour, are parts of the camera in which this sensitive screen is
exposed; and of the retina, the sensitive layer is the layer of rods
and cones. Interest therefore centres in these structures. They are
disposed with the utmost regularity on the posterior surface of a
thin, reticulated membrane—the outer limiting membrane. But rods
and cones are only the outer halves of sensory cells, the inner
portions of which, reduced to a minimum in thickness, except where
they contain their nuclei, lie in the outer nuclear layer. Rods are the
larger elements. Each consists of an outer segment, or limb, of
relatively firm substance transversely striated, and liable to break
into discs; and an inner limb of much softer substance, again
divisible into two parts, the outer longitudinally striated, the inner
granular. Cones are almost identical in structure with rods, save that
their outer limbs are much smaller, their inner limbs rather fuller. In
frogs and various other animals, but not in Man, each cone contains
at the junction of its two limbs a highly refracting globule of oil,
often brightly coloured, red, yellow, or green.

Fig. 30.—The Retina in Vertical Section—

A, after Exposure to Bright Light;
B, After Resting in the Dark.
 The arrow shows the direction in which
light traverses the retina. C, Retinal
epithelium, with its pigmented fringe. 1,
Layer of rods and cones, separated by
the external limiting membrane from 2,
the layer of the nuclei of the rods and
cones. 3, The ganglion-cells of the
retina, which are homologous with the
cells of the afferent root of a spinal
nerve. Their peripheral axons ramify
beneath the sensory epithelium (rods
and cones and their nucleus-bearing
segments), their central axons in 4, the
inner molecular layer. D, Collecting cells
on the front of the retina; a a a, their
axons which conduct impulses to the
brain; b, an efferent fibre from the
brain.
The layers in front of the rods and cones contain nervous
elements accessory to them. In the “inner nuclear layer” are the
ganglion-cells of the retina, homologous with the cells of the ganglia
on the posterior roots of spinal nerves; but, in the retina, bipolar and
extremely minute. On either side of the rather thick layer occupied
by the nuclei of these ganglion-cells (and of cells of other types
which, for the sake of clearness, we omit) is a felt-work of nerve-
filaments in which their two extremities arborize. The most internal,
or anterior, layer consists of a single sheet of rather large collecting
cells and of their axons, which stream towards the optic nerve. Each
cone has its proper ganglion-cell, collecting cell, and efferent fibre.
Rods are served in groups by ganglion-cells and collecting cells.
From this it may be inferred that a cone is a sensory unit, an
inference confirmed, as we shall show presently, by direct evidence.
The connections of the rods show that they also are sensory
elements, although it may be doubted whether they are sensory
units. The optic nerve contains a very large number of fibres—about
a million—all small, but some distinctly larger than the rest. The
largest very probably belong to the collecting cells of rods. But the
retina certainly does not contain a million collecting cells. A
considerable residue of fibres is therefore unaccounted for. It is
supposed that they are afferent to the retina, but we have no
knowledge regarding the nature of the impulses which descend from
the brain.
The retinal pigment is not merely a backing for the sensitive
screen. It undoubtedly plays an important part in vision. That it is
not essential is evident from the fact that albinos, whose eyes
appear pink owing to the absence of pigment, and the consequent
showing through of the blood in the exceedingly vascular membrane
which lies behind the retina, can see; although their visual sense
cannot be described as normal. They are exceptionally sensitive to
an excess of light. We shall return to this subject after describing the
differences in manner of functioning which distinguish rods from
cones, differences so marked as to justify us in speaking of two
kinds of vision.
During twilight warm tones gradually fade out of the landscape;
cold blues and greys predominate. A time arrives when scarlet
poppies look black, although yellow and blue flowers and green
leaves can still be dimly distinguished. In full daylight colours are
seen at their brightest in the high lights; where the light is dim they
tend to appear in different shades of grey. At night, if the sky is star-
lit, all colours give place to a slightly bluish grey in the high lights,
black in the shade. But a not very uncommon abnormality is night-
blindness—inability to see at all when the light is not bright enough
for the recognition of colours. In persons so affected the rods do not
function; for it is with the rods that we see in weak light. They
record differences in intensity between the lower limit of their
sensitiveness and the higher degree of brightness, at which they are
superseded by cones; but they afford no information regarding
colour. Their monochrome is interpreted by the mind as a bluish
grey, apparently because, since they are insensitive to red rays, the
sensations of which they are the source are associated with the blue
end of the spectrum. When the cones are stimulated very slightly,
the reinforcing grey of the rods enables us to distinguish all other
colours, save red, which appears black. In bright light the rods are in
a permanent state of exhaustion; they do not contribute to vision.
Rods respond to stimulation more slowly than cones. This fact
enables us, by a very pretty experiment, to distinguish the two kinds
of vision. A disc of green paper about the size of a threepenny-bit is
pasted on a red surface. Held at arm’s length in a room lighted by a
single candle, the disc looks dull green when the gaze is directed at
it; but if the gaze be directed 2 or 3 inches to one side of it, it
appears brighter than before, but less distinct and almost grey. The
explanation of this is to be found in the fact that at the posterior
pole of the eye there is a shallow cup—fovea centralis—which carries
cones only, without rods. This small depression is the area of direct
vision, the only spot at which we see things quite distinctly. At the
fovea the nuclei and nerve-cells of the retina are withdrawn from in
front of the cones to the margin of the cup, in order that they may
not interfere with the passage of light. The pit and the ring round it
contain some yellow pigment. Hence it is usually termed the “yellow
spot.” When we are looking straight at the green disc, it is focussed
on the yellow spot. It then excites a sensation of greenness; but
since this is not reinforced by any rod-sensations, the green is dull.
When it is focussed outside the yellow spot, it stimulates rods and
the sparse cones which lie amongst them; and the rods being more
sensitive than cones to light of low intensity, the disc looks brighter.
If, while the observer is still gazing fixedly at a spot to the side of
the disc, the red paper be waved rapidly, but gently, to right and left,
a brightish grey cover seems at each movement to slip off the dark
green disc, and to regain its position a moment later, with a jump.
The grey rod-sensation, developing more slowly than the green
cone-sensation, is, as it were, left behind. The two are separated at
the moment when the paper starts to right or to left.
Astronomers have long recognized that one of the smaller stars
which catches the attention when they are not looking directly at it
may be invisible when the gaze is directed to the spot where it ought
to be. It was visible when focussed on rods, but it is not visible when
focussed on cones. In most birds the retina shows cones alone. To
anyone who for the first time enters a dovecote at night the
experience is very curious. A candle is for him a sufficiently strong
illuminant, but it does not give light enough to enable the pigeons to
see. Although evidently alarmed by the noise made by the intruder,
they allow themselves to be taken down from their perches without
making any attempt to escape. If, startled by the touch of a hand,
they take to flight, they fly against the wall. Pigeons are night-blind.
The retina of an owl bears chiefly rods, the outer limbs of which are
exceptionally long.
The outer limbs of the rods are coloured reddish-purple. This
colour is quickly bleached by light. If a frog which has been kept for
a short time in the dark be decapitated, its head fixed for ten
minutes in a situation in which a window is in front of it, then carried
to a photographic dark-room, where an eye is taken out by red light,
opened, and the retina removed, a print of the window will be seen
upon it. Such an optogram may be fixed by dipping the retina in
alum.
The retina is easily detached from its pigment-layer. If it has
been bleached by exposure to light, it regains its “visual purple”
when again placed in contact with its pigment. Evidently the visual
purple is renewed from the pigment which lies behind (and around)
the rods.
From the cells of the pigment-layer a fringe of streaming
processes depends amongst the outer limbs of the rods and cones
(Fig. 30). In a dull light the processes hang but a short way down; in
a bright light they react almost to the outer limiting membrane. They
supply pigment to the rods, but their relation to cones is not
understood. It is clear, however, that the cones, although they are
not coloured, are dependent upon the pigment-fringe, since they
always remain in contact with it. Their inner limbs elongate in the
dark, lifting them to the pigment, and shorten in bright light. These
movements may merely indicate that the cones require a backing of
pigment, but it would seem more probable that, like the rods, they
absorb a substance which is sensitive to light, although we cannot
recognize it by its colour.
The responsiveness of the rods to light is due to visual purple. As
every lady is aware, colours, especially mauves and lilacs, are
bleached by light. The chemical change affected by light in the
colour of the outer limbs of the rods is the stimulant which originates
impulses in the nerve-fibres connected with them, and it is generally
believed that cones—the more highly specialized sensory cells—are
stimulated in the same way. Visual purple is particularly abundant in
all animals that range at night, with the exception of the bat. But its
absence in the bat does not militate against the theory that it is the
cause of night-vision, for it has been shown that a blind bat flies
with almost as much freedom, and avoids obstacles—even threads
stretched across the room—with as much skill as one that can see. It
is guided by the bristles of its cheek. So, too, is the cat, which has
the reputation of being able to see in the dark. Undoubtedly a cat’s
eye is an exceptionally efficient organ in dim light, just as it is
exceptionally sensitive to sunshine—it is provided with an iris which
contracts the pupil almost to a pinhole—but the cat trusts to the
bristles of its cheek for information regarding the things which block
its path.
Most of the peculiarities which distinguish the reactions of the
eye from those of other sense-organs can be explained by its mode
of stimulation—the initiation of a nerve-current by a chemical
change. No stimulus, if sufficiently strong, can be too brief. The
retina reacts to an electric spark in the same way as a photographic
plate; but, unlike the plate, the retina is restored to its previous
condition of sensitiveness in about one-tenth of a second. A visual
sensation lasts about one-tenth of a second. This prolongation of the
sensation is, however, a mental, not a retinal, effect. The mind
continues to see an object which has been illuminated by a flash
until the retina is again in a condition to send brainwards a second
impulse. Were our sensations coincident in duration with the
stimulation of our sense-organs, we should live in a flickering
cinematograph. When one is watching a moving point of light—the
glowing end of a match, for example—the prolongation of sensation
has its disadvantages; the moving point is interpreted as a streak of
light. If the illumination be very brilliant, the object seen may give
rise to a prolonged after-image. A glance at the sun leaves in the
mind for seconds, or even for minutes, the image of a glowing disc.
Sensations due to stimulation of the yellow spot last longer than
those which originate in the peripheral retina. If, in a train, one is
being carried at a certain pace, past a fence composed of upright
palings, one sees the separate slats until the eyes are directed
towards them, when they fuse into a continuous screen.
The phenomena of negative or complementary images are of
retinal origin. The bright image of the sun, if the stimulus has not
been too violent, gives place to a black disc. If one closes the eyes
after staring at a window, a black surface crossed by bright lines is
seen in place of a white surface with dark frames to the panes. If,
after staring at a red surface, one looks at the ceiling, a green patch
is seen; after yellow, blue. Every colour has its complement, which
may be determined in this way. There is much uncertainty as to the
exact terms in which this phenomenon is to be accounted for, but
little doubt as to its being due to the peculiar mode of reaction of
the retina to light. Chemical substances which have been used up
have to be restored, and during the period in which they are coming
back to what may be termed a neutral condition the retina delivers
to the brain impulses of the opposite sign.
Contrasts which are experienced simultaneously are more difficult
to understand than those which appear successively. In Fig. 31 the
half of the grey cross which is surrounded by black appears brighter
than the half which lies on white paper. A grey cross on a red
background looks green; on a green background, red; on yellow,
blue; on blue, yellow. If green is on red, it looks greener than if it is
on white or black. These simultaneous contrasts are seen best when
the strength of the colours is reduced by covering them with tissue-
paper. It is as if activity of any one part of the retina is accompanied
by activity of the opposite sign in the remainder. But it is unsafe, in
explaining our various sensations, to lay too much stress on the
mode of stimulation. The mind judges sensations in the light of
previous experience. In anatomical language, the effect of
sensations upon the personality depends upon the paths which
impulses follow in the brain, and the associations which have been
established by previous impulses which have followed the same
paths. The retina enables us to distinguish tone and colour. By the
variations in tone, the juxtapositions of light and shade, we
recognize form. All streams of impulses which do not present tone-
variations—do not, that is to say, reproduce the details of a scene—
are interpreted in terms of colour. Every child discovers that the
tedium of the intervals during which it is proper that his eyes should
be closed may be relieved by pressing his knuckles against the lids.
Although the world is shut out, a phosphene offers itself for his
consideration—a yellow or white disc of irregular form with a red
margin, changing into lilac bordered with green, and then into
yellowish-green with a blue edge. Such, if my recollection can be
trusted, were the pictures which I used to see as a boy; but no
adjustment of pressure calls them forth with anything like the same
vividness now.
 Fig. 31.— Simultaneous Contrast.
The shading of the two V’s is exactly
similar; but the figure in half-tone on
black appears brighter than the figure
in half-tone on a white ground.

All the senses show a tendency to rebound after activity,

exhibiting contrast-phenomena; but the contrasts of vision are more
marked and varied than those of the other senses, as everyone who
is curious in the observation of his own sensations is aware.
Negative after-images are generally referred to the retina; but
various other kinds of after-image and contrast-phenomena must be
attributed to the judgments passed by the mind upon the sensations
which it receives; and not to physical changes in sense-organs.
Positive after-images are well-marked appearances, although less
common, perhaps, than the phenomena of reversal of sensation of
which we have just written. On waking in the morning, one looks at
the window; shifting the gaze to the ceiling, an after-image of the
window appears, just as one saw it, with bright panes and dark
frame. The “dark adapted eye,” being exceptionally sensitive, yields
the same persistent positive after-image as the eye in its usual
condition yields, after being directed towards the sun at mid-day.
Movement-after-images can be explained only by referring them to
misdirection of judgment. If the gaze is fixed on a rock close beside
a waterfall, then shifted to a bank covered with grass or bushes, the
part of the bank which occupies the lateral part of the field of vision
appears to rush upwards, reversing the movement of the water.
When the gaze has been fixed upon falling water—a narrow stream
sparkling in sunlight—a central strip of the field moves upwards, the
margins remaining stationary. If one stares at the spot on the
surface of a basin of water on which drops are falling from a tap,
and then looks at the floor, it is seen to contract towards the spot
looked at, reversing the movement of the ripples in the basin. These
observations reveal a fact of great importance in the physiology of
vision. It is, probably, impossible truly to fix the gaze. The muscles
of the eyeball keep the retinal field in constant movement—larger
movements with minute oscillations superposed. When, as in
watching a waterfall, movement has for a time taken a definite
direction, its cessation is judged to mean reversal.
The anatomical unit of sensation is a cone. The fovea centralis,
the only part of the retina capable of receiving sensations sufficiently
discrete for reading, contains cones alone. If the gaze be directed
but a very few millimetres on to the white margin of the page,
letters lose their form. In the fovea the centre of one cone is 3·6 µ
distant from the centre of the next. Two stars are visible as separate
stars if they subtend an angle of at least 60 seconds with the eye.
Their images on the retina are then 4 µ apart. Parallel white lines
ruled on black paper, held at such a distance as causes them to
subtend angles of 60 seconds with the eye, appear not straight but
wavy, showing that their images are taken up, not by a continuous
substance, but by the mosaic of cones. So far the explanation of the
visual unit is strictly anatomical; but it must be added that trained
observers can recognize the separateness of objects which subtend
angles of much less than 60 seconds—not more than 5 or 6 seconds.
This can be accounted for only on the hypothesis that images far
closer together than the width of a cone produce a specific effect in
passing across the anatomical unit.
In 1807 Thomas Young, the physicist, formulated a theory to
account for colour-vision. He supposed that the retina contains
three kinds of apparatus—a, b, and c—each especially responsive to
a particular kind of light, all three slightly stimulated by rays of all
colours. (Young imagined three kinds of nerve, but modern
supporters of his theory suppose three different substances
chemically changed by light.) A prism spreads out the rays which are
combined in white light into a band in the order of their wave-
lengths—those which have the longest wave-length (0·8 µ) and the
slowest rate of vibration (381 billions to the second) at one end,
those which have the shortest wave-length (0·4 µ) and the most
rapid vibration (764 billions to the second) at the other: between
these two extremes every intermediate grade of length and rapidity.
These are a mere fraction—a small group—of the waves which the
æther transmits, but they are all that we can see. The long, slow
vibrations give rise to sensations which we describe as red; the
short, rapid vibrations we describe as violet. Our names for the tints
which intervene are singularly old-fashioned and unsatisfactory, but
all persons agree that they recognize in the spectrum a certain
number of definite colours. Some normal-sighted persons say
twelve, others eighteen. It is largely a question of terminology.
Many considerations show that it is quite unnecessary to imagine
that the retina is affected in a different kind of way by every kind of
light, or by each of several groups of waves. If the red of the
spectrum is mixed with yellow, we receive an impression of orange,
which is identical with the impression produced by waves of the
mean length of red and yellow; orange and green give yellow;
yellow and blue, green. Any two complementary colours yield white.
By taking three colours—say, red, green, and violet—we obtain,
when they are duly mixed, not white light only, but light of any other
tint, although not of spectral purity, since it is mixed with white.
Young considered that all the conditions of colour-vision would be
satisfied, all our various sensations provided for, if the retina contain
three kinds of apparatus which light, according to its quality, affects
in varying degrees; and with this theory of three kinds of apparatus
—a, b, and c—the theory of three elementary or fundamental colour-
sensations is indissolubly linked. The colour x produces its intensest
effect when a is stimulated, with the least possible stimulation of b
and c; y is the reaction of b, z of c. Recent studies of the curves of
intensity give us the tints of x, y, and z as carmine-red, apple-green,
and ultramarine blue.
The blending of sensations is illustrated with the well-known
colour-top. But perhaps the most striking proof that three
elementary colour-sensations are adequate to produce our visual
world is afforded by photographs taken with the three-colour
method. Three plates are exposed—(a) behind a red screen, (b)
behind a greenish-yellow screen, (c) behind a blue screen. They are
fixed in such a way that the portions acted upon by light are
rendered insoluble, whereas the rest of the film can be dissolved
away; a is then stained red, b greenish yellow, c blue. The three are
superposed, and the result appears to the eye as an exact
reproduction of the subject of the photograph in all its hues. It
shows every shade of orange and green and violet. It is as bright—
that is to say, as full of white light—as the original.
Various objections may, however, be brought against Young’s
theory. Of these, the most weighty are: (1) The retina does not
contain three kinds of apparatus, as Young supposed; nor can we
find three kinds of photochemical substances, as required by the
theory in its modern form. If we could find them, a fresh difficulty
would arise; for we have no reasons for supposing that one and the
same nerve-ending can receive stimuli of three different kinds. (2)
The theory offers no explanation of negative after-images—the
complementary colours experienced when the eye is closed after
staring at a brightly coloured object. (3) It does not adequately
account for the various deficiencies of colour-blindness.
 It is well recognized that there are various degrees of colour-
blindness, and that the colour-vision of persons considered normal
presents different grades of refinement. Nevertheless, the
abnormalities of colour-blind persons are so marked that cases fall
into definite classes. Those whose cones do not function—which
means that their yellow spots are either undeveloped or diseased—
see all things grey. They are totally colour-blind. Excluding these, the
colour-blind may be grouped in one or other of two divisions—(a)
those who confuse red and green, (b) those who confuse yellow and
blue. One person out of every thirty-five is red-green blind. The
proportion is even higher if males only are considered, showing how
very unfortunate is our choice of warning signals. A man who is red-
green blind cannot tell the port from the starboard light. Blue-yellow
blindness is, on the other hand, extremely rare. According to Young’s
theory, colour-blindness is due to the absence of one of the three
sets of visual apparatus. But cases do not altogether conform to this
hypothesis. We knew an amateur water-colourist, since deceased,
who derived intense pleasure from the beauties of Nature, and
showed no mean skill in reproducing them with his brush,
notwithstanding the fact that he was red-green blind. Each night his
sister arranged his paint-box for him, and only rarely did he use
vermilion to fill in a foreground of lush green grass. But this mistake,
when he made it, did not destroy his own satisfaction in the picture.
It was clear that red had a value for him, although he confused it
with green. It is impossible for a normal person to see through the
eye of one who is colour-blind, and there is no other means of
comparing his sensations with our own. The mistakes which the
colour-blind make in sorting coloured objects and in naming
mixtures of light selected from various parts of the spectrum show
the range of their deficiency, but give us no information regarding
the qualities of the sensations which they retain.
The test of colour-sensitiveness usually employed is the grading
of a large number of wools of different tint. The order in which the
colours should be arranged is not a matter of opinion. They must be
placed in the order in which they occur in the spectrum—i.e.,
arranged according to their wave-lengths. In the cases of colour-
blindness which are most frequently met with the defect may be
described as due to an absence of the sense of redness, or as an
absence of the sense of greenness. The two conditions can be
distinguished. But since the eye is not dark for red (although in
certain cases vision is very weak for the red end of the spectrum) or
dark for green, the abnormality cannot be adequately accounted for
on structural grounds. It is not explicable on the hypothesis that one
of three sets of responsive sense-organs (or nerve-fibres) or
photochemical substances is absent from the eye. Again, it is
generally agreed that the sensations of white, yellow, and blue of
the red-green colour-blind are similar to those of normal persons.
This is not in harmony with the theory of the omission from their
eyes of one of three pieces of colour-apparatus.
Professor Hering, of Leipsic, adopting the generally accepted
view that light effects chemical changes in substances contained in
the retina, to which changes stimulation of nerve-endings is due,
formulated a theory of colour-vision which many physiologists prefer
to Young’s. He imagines that the retina contains three kinds of
pigment, each of which is, as he believes all living substance to be,
in a constant state of change. It is at the same time being built up
and destroyed. Using the terms which connote the opposite
directions of metabolism, the pigment is simultaneously undergoing
anabolism and katabolism; the two processes, when the retina is at
rest, maintaining equilibrium. When light acts upon either of the
substances, it hastens, according to its quality, either the one
process or the other; and the chemical change, whether it be
constructive or destructive, stimulates the endings of optic nerves.
Hering assumes, therefore, that there are six elementary qualities of
visual sensation—red, green, yellow, blue, white, black. Red, yellow,
white are due to anabolism of the visual substances; green, blue,
black are due to their katabolism. The installation of yellow amongst
the unanalysable colours is a relief to many minds. It is almost
impossible to think of yellow as a compounded colour. White also,
we feel, is not a compounded colour, despite our knowledge that a
prism scatters from it all the hues of the rainbow. Black, many
persons assert, gives them a definite sensation, and not merely a
sense of rest. (Parenthetically, it may be observed that the feeling
that a colour is pure or mixed is not to be trusted. It may be based
upon the chromatic aberration of the eye, or it may be reminiscent
of the paint-box. We know that we cannot make yellow by mixing
red and green pigments, hence we feel that it is pure. Of green we
are not by any means sure; gamboge and Prussian blue come into
our minds.) Except when the light which falls upon the retina is
giving rise to one of the four pure colour-sensations, all three
substances are simultaneously affected, although one may be
undergoing katabolism while the other two are being built up, or vice
versa. Hering accounts for simultaneous contrast by assuming that
the activity of any one part of the retina induces an opposite kind of
change in the remainder, and especially in the vicinity of the
primarily active part. When a certain patch is developing a sensation
of red, the rest of the retina develops a sensation of green.
The great merit of the theory is, however, to be found in its
offering an explanation of complementary after-images. The green
patch seen with closed eyes after one has stared at a red object is
due to the rebound of metabolism. In returning to a condition of
chemical equilibrium the retinal substance acts as a stimulant which
evokes the antagonistic colour. But it is a theory which makes very
large assumptions. It assumes, for example, the possibility of the
existence of a substance which is built up by light from one end of
the spectrum, and decomposed by light from its centre. Not that
Hering regards the existence of three retinal substances as essential
to his theory. He is prepared to transfer to the brain the seat of the
substances, or the substance, which, by their, or its, anabolism and
katabolism, produces antagonistic colour-perceptions; but in this he
is abandoning physiology for metaphysics. We have no warrant for
imagining that there exists in the brain any substance which, by
undergoing physical changes of various kinds, produces various
psychical effects. The problem to be solved is physiological. Rays of
light of different wave-lengths excite the retina to discharge
impulses which are variously distributed in the brain. The effects
which they produce in consciousness depend upon their distribution.
The impulses to which the longest rays give rise evoke sensations of
red, those due to the shortest, sensations of violet. And what is true
of the retina as a whole is true, apparently, of each individual cone.
In what way does light act upon a cone? It is one of the most
fascinating problems in physiology. Round it our thoughts revolve
whenever we are trying to form conceptions of the nature of
stimulation, sensation, and perception. Each of the two theories
which we have expounded above helps to group together certain of
the more striking phenomena of colour-vision, but neither gives a
satisfying explanation of their causation.
The sensitiveness of the retina is in a remarkable degree
adjusted to the intensity of the light. When a dark room is entered,
the pupil dilates; but one’s power of distinguishing objects continues
to increase after the pupil has reached its maximum size. At the end
of ten minutes the eye may be twenty-five times as sensitive as it
was when the room was entered. This adaptation to darkness is due
in large degree to the substitution of rods for cones as the organs on
which vision chiefly depends. But it cannot be wholly due to this,
since it occurs when one is working with a red light. Probably the red
used in a “dark-room” is not sufficiently near the end of the
spectrum to be completely without influence upon visual purple, but
it is a colour to which rods are comparatively insensitive. Other
evidence also points to an adaptation of cones as well as of rods.
 Fig. 32.—The Formation of an Image by the Refracting Media of the Eye.
x, The common centre of curvature (nodal
point of the several media). Rays which
pass through this point are not
deflected. y, The principal focus of the
system. All rays which are parallel to
the optic axis converge to this point.
The image of the point A is formed at
a, the spot at which a ray parallel with
the optic axis meets an unbent ray—the
image of B at b.
Accommodation of the eye for distance is brought about by a
mechanism which allows the lens to change in shape. It becomes
more convex when a near object is looked at than it was when
adjusted for an unlimited distance, which is its condition when the
eye is at rest. Adjustment for near objects involves muscular action,
and is accompanied by a sense of effort, however slight. Whilst the
eye is at rest the lens is mechanically compressed against the
anterior layer of its suspensory ligament. Accommodation for near
vision is effected by the ciliary muscle, which is placed in the shelf of
tissue which projects into the interior of the eyeball. This muscle is
made up of a ring of circular fibres, and to the outer side of this, of
fibres which radiate backwards and outwards. The longitudinal, or
radiating, fibres obtain their purchase by attachment to the firm wall
of the globe just beyond the cornea. They spread into the front of
the loose chorioid membrane which lines the eye behind the retina.
By the joint action of these two sets of plain muscle-fibres the
suspensory ligament is slackened, and the extremely elastic lens,
previously compressed, bulges forwards. The radius of curvature of
its anterior surface changes from 10·3 millimetres for distance to 6
millimetres for vision at the “near point.” It was stated, in connection
with the development of the lens (p. 374), that the cells of the
posterior half of the hollow sphere out of which it is formed grow
forwards into extremely long fibres, which traverse its whole
thickness. These fibres are bent like the segments of a carriage-
spring. Their anterior ends rest against the flattened ligament of the
lens; the vitreous humour, which is always under tension,
compresses their posterior ends. When removed from the eye, the
lens becomes rounder than it is in situ, even when accommodated
for near objects. But in later life it grows stiff. It ceases to bulge
forwards when its ligament is slackened. Hence it becomes
necessary to aid the presbyopic eye with convex glasses when it is
used for near objects, although for distant vision it remains as
effective as ever. If the ciliary muscle is constantly and completely
relieved of the labour of accommodation, it grows lazy, or rather
wastes from want of use. A person who relies on spectacles loses his
power of accommodation; but ophthalmologists agree that self-
focussing, if it give rise to a sensation of strain, is bad for the eyes.
In myopic persons the eyeball is too deep; objects are focussed in
front of the retina. In hypermetropia (“long sight”) the eyeball is too
shallow; objects are focussed behind the retina. Concave glasses
correct the one condition, convex glasses correct the other. Glasses
are also very commonly called for to neutralize another defect—
regular astigmatism—which may be present by itself, or may
accompany insufficient length or too great length of the optic axis. It
is due to unequal curvature of the cornea. Usually the curvature is
sharper in the vertical than in the horizontal meridian (cf. p. 269); as
a consequence, points in a vertical line are focussed in front of
points in a horizontal line. Cylindrical glasses, not lenses, are
required to correct this defect. And here it may be well to call
attention to the fact that rays of light are more sharply refracted by
the surface of the cornea than they are by the crystalline lens. The
lens has a high index of refraction (1·45), but it does not lie in air
(the index of refraction of which is 1), but between two humours
which have about the same index as water—namely, 1·336. The
bending by the combined action of the cornea and the lens of rays
of light which come from a source so distant that they may be
considered as parallel brings them to a focus on the retina, when the
lens is at its flattest. When the lens is at its roundest, rays which
diverge from a point only 5 inches in front of the eye are focussed
on the retina. The lens is therefore essential for accommodation,
but, after its removal for cataract, vision, even for near objects, is
rendered possible by the use of convex glasses.

Fig. 33.
A, The normal eyeball, in which, when the
ciliary muscle is relaxed, parallel rays
are brought to a focus on the retina. B,
A hypermetropic eyeball. Its depth
being less than normal, parallel rays are
not brought to a focus on the retina
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