The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.Preyer, William T.
Science
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.
Preyer, William T.
Child development; Child psychology
"Two days afterward the eye, which had been kept closed by means
of court-plaster, was again opened. He now described what he saw
as a number of opaque watery spheres, which moved with the
movements of the eye, but when the eye was at rest remained
stationary, and then partly covered each other. Two days after
this the eye was again opened. The same phenomena were again
observed, but the spheres were less opaque and somewhat
transparent; their movements more steady; they appeared to cover
each other more than before. He was now for the first time able,
as he said, to look through the spheres, and to perceive a
difference, but merely a difference, in the surrounding objects.
When he directed his eye steadily toward an object, the visual
impression produced by the object was painful and very
imperfect, because the eye, on account of its intolerance of
light, could not be kept open long enough for the formation of
the idea as derived from visual sensation. The appearance of
spheres diminished daily; they became smaller, clearer, and more
pellucid, allowed objects to be seen more distinctly, and
disappeared entirely after two weeks. The _muscae volitantes_,
which had the form of black, immovable, and horizontal stripes,
appeared, every time the eye was opened, in a direction upward
and inward. When the eye was closed he observed, especially in
the evening, in an outward and upward direction, an appearance
of dark blue, violet, and red colors; these colors became
gradually less intense, were shaded into bright orange, yellow,
and green, which latter colors alone eventually remained, and in
the course of five weeks disappeared entirely. As soon as the
intolerance of light had so far abated that the patient could
observe an object without pain, and for a sufficient time to
gain an idea of it, the following experiments were made on
different days.
"_First Experiment._--Silk ribbons of different colors, fastened
on a black ground, were employed to show the complementary
colors. The patient recognized the different colors, with the
exception of yellow and green, which he frequently confounded,
but could distinguish when both were exhibited at the same time.
He could point out each color correctly when a variety was shown
him at the same time. Gray pleased him best; the effect of red,
orange, and yellow was painful; that of violet and brown not
painful, but disagreeable. Black produced subjective colors, and
white occasioned the recurrence of _muscae volitantes_ in a most
vehement degree.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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