But to come now to the most pertinent objection. We saw that Berlin's
whole train of thought rested upon the assertion that it made no
difference whether we regarded by means of the speculum the seeming
movement of a fixed retinal point, or whether the image of an external
moving object is passing over the horse's retina. As a matter of fact,
however, these two processes are very different from one another. In
moving the mirror, with its small opening we are looking through ever
changing portions of the horse's lens,--testing it out, as it were. The
horse, on the other hand, sees with all parts of the lens
simultaneously, in so far as the lens is not covered by the iris. The
arcuate deflection, which is nothing but a registration of the
difference in the indices of refraction of the different parts of the
lens used consecutively, might thus be formed for the observer using the
mirror, but never for the horse. For these reasons we cannot conclude
that the kind of astigmatism described can really increase the horse's
acuity in the perception of movements.
Since the light-refracting apparatus of the horse's eye does not offer a
satisfactory explanation for the extraordinary keenness of visual
perception possessed by the Osten horse, we must go a step further and
ask whether it may not perhaps be found in the part immediately
sensitive to light, the retina. That portion really would seem to be
adapted to the perception of movements of minimal extent, and for this
reason: it is more than three times as great in extent as the human
retina, and the horse's retinal images are likewise larger owing to the
position of the nodal point. The cells of the retina that are sensitive
to light, the rods and cones, might therefore be correspondingly larger
than those of the human eye, without thereby making the whole organ less
efficient than the human eye. But the most recent measurements[51] have
shown that the rods and cones of the horse's eye are more minute than
ours. Assuming that, in the case of the horse, as is presumably the case
in human vision, the transition of a stimulus from one retinal cell to
the next already in itself induces a sensation of movement, then the
horse ought indeed be extraordinarily keen in the perception of moving
objects (provided that the horse's more minute cells are packed just as
closely as in the human retina). And besides, there are two specially
adapted areas within the retina of the horse. The "band"
("streifenfoermige Area") which was discovered fifteen years ago by
Chievitz,[52] is a strip of 1 to 1-1/2 millimeters in width, traversing
the entire retina horizontally, and is noteworthy on account of its
structure and probably, too, on account of its greater efficiency. It
may have something to do with the accomplishments of the Osten horse;
but in how far it would be hard to say. The other noteworthy portion of
the horse's retina is the "round area" discovered some four years ago,
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