As our pages are frequently consulted for literary purposes, the suggestion of Γ is extremely valuable, and we trust his hints will be adopted by our numerous correspondents.—Ed.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
A Stereoscopic Note.—I possess a small volume entitled A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things, by T. H., B.B., Fellow of the Royal Society, 1688. "To which are subjoined, by way of Appendix, some uncommon observations about vitiated sight." In this strange appendix, one of the uncommon observations is worth the notice of your correspondents who write on stereoscopic subjects. I give you an extract from it:
"It has been of late the opinion of very learned men, that though both our eyes are open, and turned towards an object, yet 'tis but one of them at a time that is effectually employed in giving us the representation of it: which opinion, in this place where I am writing but observations, it were not proper to discuss, especially because what is suppos'd to be observed will not always uniformly happen, but may vary in particular persons according to their several customs, and the constitution of their eyes: for I have, by an experiment purposely made, several times found, that my two eyes together see an object in another situation than either of them apart would do." And in giving instances for and against binocular vision, the author says: "A yet more considerable instance of such mistakes I afterwards had from a noble person, who, having in a fight, where he play'd the hero, had one of his eyes strangely shot out by a musquet bullet, that came out at his mouth, answered me, that not only he could not well pour drink out of one vessel into another, but had broken many glasses by letting them fall out of his hand, when he thought he had put them into another's, or set them down upon a table." The whole book is a very curious one, and I should be obliged if the Editor of "N. & Q." could tell me who T. H. was?[[5]]
J. Lawson Sisson.
Edingthorpe.
Footnote 5:[(return)]
The Hon. Robert Boyle.
Photographic Query.—I think many amateur photographers would be thankful for plain and simple directions how to mount their positives on cardboard. Would the Editor of "N. & Q." assist us in this?