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The eye the most important of our organs—Popular description of it—The eye is the most fertile source of mental illusions—Disappearance of objects when their images fall upon the base of the optic nerve—Disappearance of objects when seen obliquely—Deceptions arising from viewing objects in a faint light—Luminous figures created by pressure on the eye, either from external causes or from the fulness of the blood-vessels—Ocular spectra or accidental colours—Remarkable effects produced by intense light—Influence of the imagination in viewing these spectra—Remarkable illusion produced by this affection of the eye—Duration of impressions of light on the eye—Thaumatrope—Improvements upon it suggested—Disappearance of halves of objects or of one of two persons—Insensibility of the eye to particular colours—Remarkable optical illusion described
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Subject of spectral illusions—Recent and interesting case of Mrs. A.—Her first illusion affecting the ear—Spectral apparition of her husband—Spectral apparition of a cat—Apparition of a near and living relation in grave-clothes, seen in a looking-glass—Other illusions, affecting the ear—Spectre of a deceased friend sitting in an easy-chair—Spectre of a coach-and-four filled with skeletons—Accuracy and value of the preceding cases—State of health under which they arose—Spectral apparitions are pictures on the retina—The ideas of memory and imagination are also pictures on the retina—General views of the subject—Approximate explanation of spectral apparitions
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Science used as an instrument of imposture—Deceptions with plane and concave mirrors practised by the ancients—The magician’s mirror—Effects of concave mirrors—Aërial images—Images on smoke—Combination of mirrors for producing pictures from living objects—The mysterious dagger—Ancient miracles with concave mirrors—Modern necromancy with them, as seen by Cellini—Description and effects of the magic lantern—Improvements upon it—Phantasmagoric exhibitions of Philipstall and others—Dr. Young’s arrangement of lenses, &c., for the Phantasmagoria—Improvements suggested—Catadioptrical phantasmagoria for producing the pictures from living objects—Method of cutting off parts of the figures—Kircher’s mysterious hand-writing on the wall—His hollow cylindrical mirror for aërial images—Cylindrical mirror for re-forming distorted pictures—Mirrors of variable curvature for producing caricatures
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