Visual balance

“ The organ of language—ask the little child—is not the eye: it is the ear. The eye is made for colours, and not for sounds and words.... This tension, continuous and contrary to nature, of the organ of sight, the forced precipitancy of the visual act, produced what it was bound to produce, a disease of the eyesight. ”

“ In visual perception the sweep of the glance, that is the adjustment of the muscles of the inner eye, the outer eye and of the head, is susceptible of being either interrupted or continuous like any other muscular process; and its continuity is what unites the mere successive sensations of colour and light into a unity of extension, so that the same successive colour-and-light-sensations can be experienced either as one extension, or as two or more, according as the glance is continuous or interrupted ”

“ By making the patient more comfortable glasses do often improve his mental condition, but since they cannot relieve the mental strain that underlies the visual one, they cannot improve it to normal and by confirming it in a bad habit they may make it worse. ”

“ If we assume, on the other hand, that the movements and their feelings are alone possessed of the extensive quality, we make an unjustified hypothesis, for the phenomena compel us, it is true, to accord an influence to movement, but give us no right to call the retinal sensations indifferent, for there are no visual ideas without retinal sensations. ”

“ Pupils entering our schools come to us with good eyes, but if they stay with us till the end of the course, GO to 70 per cent, of them will leave us with but two thirds normal visual acuity or less. Most of this loss of vision is caused directly by the strain put upon the eyes in reading, writing and drawing. ”

“ Whatever its origin, the growth of civilization has served to develop this eye-mindedness of the race, and to increase and diversify the modes of its cultivation.
The eye, thus constantly stimulated in waking life, and attracting to its sensations the focus of attention, possessing, as it does, in the retinal fovea a special and [338] unique aid to concentrative attention, does not yield up its supremacy in the world of dreams. The visual centres subside but slowly from their day's stimulation ”

“ It stimulates the peripheral sense organ, the eye, the retina, the physiological processes aroused in the rods and cones are transmitted by the optic nerve and by the optic tracts to the visual centres of the occipital lobes, the functioning of which is accompanied by sensations of sight. ”

“ When thought is normal - that is, not attended by any excitement or strain - the circulation in the brain is normal, the supply of blood to the optic nerve and the visual centers is normal, and the vision is perfect. When thought is abnormal the circulation is disturbed, the supply of blood to the optic nerve and visual centers is altered, and the vision lowered. We can consciously think thoughts which disturb the circulation and lower the visual power ”

“ You ask how men have arrived at the knowledge of these things, seeing the mechanism in question is almost entirely removed from any direct investigation. First, then, the umbellar expansion of the optic nerve, the retina, enables us to make experiments; this retina being in such close contact with the eye, the optical part of the visual organ, that it is accessible to every sort of mechanical irritation. ”

“ The patients who offer these changes complain usually of considerable dimness of sight, which on examination is found to include both diminution in the acuteness of visual perception, and restriction in the field of vision, or extent of any object seen at once. ”

“ Sight.—Vision is a distance sense; we can see afar off. The stimulus is chemical in its action; this means that the ether waves, on striking the retina, cause a chemical change which sets up the nerve current responsible for the sensation.
The eye, whose general structure is sufficiently described in all standard physiologies, consists of a visual apparatus designed to bring the images of objects to a92 clear focus on the retina at the fovea, or area of clearest vision, near the point of entrance of the optic nerve. ”

“ We regard the organ and its dispositions merely as a general condition regulating the apprehension of the visual sensations, and no more.
Thus, by attending to the two associations that occur,—the association (in place) of visual sensations with tangible bodies that are not the eye; and the association (in place) of vision with a small tangible body that is the eye—the eye regarded as the condition on which the apprehension of these sensations depends; by attending to these, we can understand how a protensive interval comes to be recognised between the organ and its objects. ”

“ First, adaptation of vision to a dark room, like those used for flyers during the war. Then the drops of black liquid that the professor had invented, slowly spreading over the eyes, subtly altering the rods and cones of the retina, the nerve endings sensitive to light.
And I began to live in a gradually fading world. Have you ever wondered what it's like to go blind? The increasing dusk and darkness around the edges of your vision, the little errors and mistakes that begin to crop up in everyday life. ”

“ In this brief analysis of the direct factor in pleasing visual form, I have regarded the immediate activity of the eye as something ultimate, only referring now and again to the effects of habit in facilitating certain kinds of motor activity. But modern psychological ideas will enable us to explain to some extent how the eye has come to be so constituted as to take pleasure in the kinds of activity just described. ”

“ This is the interesting side of visual perception, that, owing to the vast complex of distinguishable sensations of light and colour of various qualities and intensities, together with the muscular sensations attending the varying positions of the organ, the eye is able to recognize at any instant a whole external world with its fundamental properties and relations. ”

“ To those who cannot do this I should say that the first thing to do is to discard glasses altogether. Relax the mind and eye by palming. Learn to know how the eyes feel when relaxed and when doing your accustomed tasks try to keep this feeling of relaxation (lack of effort) present at all times. Do not allow the eyes to become strained. Let objects that you wish to see come to you, do not try to go to them. You will fail sometimes. If you persist, however, your failures will be less and less frequent and as your vision improves, which it surely will, you will gain confidence. ”

“ The fundamental character of this spontaneous self-evolving procession of imagery is indicated by the significant fact that it tends to take place whenever the more retinal and peripheral part of the visual apparatus is affected by the exhaustion of undue stimulation, or even when the organism generally is disturbed or run down, as in neurasthenic conditions. ”

“ When the sight is normal and continuously good, to try to stop the swing of a letter or other object necessitates a strain,—an effort which always lowers the vision and produces discomfort or pain in one or both eyes. ”

“ If you will bear in mind the fact that the colors and values that are seen out of the corners of the eyes, are, on account of their very situation, able to affect only a very limited number of the sensitive nerves of the retina, you will understand that the force of their impact must be proportionately less than those which come to the eye from the full centre of vision ”

“ Rest the eyes by closing or palming, and note that the vision is improved, and pain and discomfort relieved; stare at a letter, concentrate upon it, make an effort to see it, and note that it disappears, and that a feeling of discomfort or pain is produced.
Note that a small part of a large object is seen better than the rest of it.
Accustom the eyes to strong light; learn to look at the sun; note that the vision is not lowered but improved, and that the light causes less and less discomfort. ”

“ When the visual plane is depressed and the eyes move to the right they rotate to the left; when they move to the left they rotate to the right. Through experience we unconsciously evaluate the muscular stresses, efforts, and movements accompanying the motion of the eyes and thereby interpret much through visual perception in regard to such aspects of the external world as size, shape, and distance of objects. Even this brief glimpse of the principal movements of the eyes indicates a complexity which suggests the intricacy of the explanations of certain visual phenomena. ”

“ For example, if the eye, adjusted to a dim light, is suddenly turned toward a brilliantly lighted object, the retina will receive too much light and will be shocked before the muscles controlling the iris can react to shut out the superabundance of light. ”

“ When a patient has consciously lowered his vision and produced discomfort and even pain by trying to see the big C, or a whole line of letters, equally well at one time, he becomes better able to correct the unconscious effort of the eye to see all parts of a smaller area equally well at one time. ”

“ Here we enter a border region where the seeing process begins to pass over into a pathological condition.4 A 'secret' of the effect of light on the eye is here revealed which remains hidden in ordinary vision, for normally the different forces working together in the eye hold each other in balance, so that none is able to manifest separately. This equilibrium is disturbed, however, when we suddenly expose the eye to light while it is adapted to darkness. The light then acts on the eye in its usual way, but without the immediate counter-action which normally restores the balance. ”

“ On a similar principle, we should flood with diffused light the rooms in which numerous workmen are to be gathered, some of whom must be far from the windows. With a good light, or one which is equivalent to several million candles a yard off, we use in reading only a fraction of the cornea, and the contraction of the pupil has the effect of greatly diminishing the diameter of the circles of diffusion which are liable to produce in the retina faults of vision. Under these conditions, a badly formed eye may perform good service, and is subject to only a moderate degree of fatigue. ”

“ The only perceptible variation from the normal state is, that the eye, in most subjects, is clear and glassy, the same eye that is observed in some maniacs, and in consumptive patients—clear, sharp, and fearful to look at. The hidden fires of the soul seem to burn through it, with intense force. I have watched it for months, and years, in consumptives, under the wasting of vitality; and the eye kindles and sparkles with more intensity as they near their end. ”

“ It is the life of color and it must be fully appreciated if the potentiality of lighting is to be drawn upon as it should be.
Physical measurements are as essential in lighting as in other phases of human endeavor for forming a solid foundation, but in all these activities where visual perception plays an important part judgment is finally the means for appraisal. Wherever the psychological aspect is prominent physical measurements are likely to be misleading if they do not agree with mental appraisals. ”

“ It may be objected to the foregoing argument that, though the outline of one side of a column may by reason of its curve allow the eye to glance along it without the effort of fixation, that of the opposite side, forming a reciprocal arc, must simultaneously offer an equally exaggerated impediment to ease of vision. I answer that the percipient mind tends to neglect all sensory impressions which interfere with the homogeneity of a mental picture. The infinite details of a landscape impressed upon the outskirts of the retina? ”

“ Such practices as reading alternately in a bright and a dim light, or going from a dark room to a well-lighted one, and vice versa, are to be recommended. Even such rapid and violent fluctuations of light as those involved in the production of the moving picture are, in the long run, beneficial to all eyes. I always advise patients under treatment for the cure of defective vision to go to the movies frequently and practice central fixation. ”

“ Fixing the sight upon bright objects is attended by peculiar phenomena. The dazzling effect, the flow of tears, and the fatigue of the retina cause the images on the edges of the field of vision to disappear. ”

“ My eyesight is now steadily improving, and I intend to keep up the treatment until I have normal vision. I have given up the music for the time being – my eyes are more important, ten times more important – and the ridicule of my friends does not disturb me. As long as that old cataract continues to melt away nothing else matters. ”

“ Mental pictures are formed first with the eyes closed, then with the eyes open, and as the ability to form them with the eyes open increases the vision increases.
In every way possible the fact is impressed upon the patient that he can be cured only by rest; that he must learn to let his eyes alone; that whatever he does to improve his sight must be wrong. ”

“ We have seen already that, of the myriad sights the sun makes, only a slight proportion affect our retina; we have learned that of all the thousandfold possible excitants of nerve and muscle, comparatively few ever produce in us sensation. ”

“ The End-organs and Their Response to Stimuli.—Thus the radiations of ether from the sun, our chief source of light, are so rapid that billions of them enter the eye in a second of time, and the retina is of such a nature that its nerve cells are thrown into activity by these waves; the impulse is carried over the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of the cortex, and the sensation of sight is the result. ”

“ Still, we must not demand of our organs the maximum of adaptation of which they are susceptible. If we read a book with the sun shining directly upon it, even if we do not injure the eyesight, we will disarrange the rate of adaptation, so that we will not be able for some time to see in a demi-obscurity. On the other hand, if we stay long in the dark, we may increase the sensibility of the retina so that a sudden return to daylight will be painful. ”