Abstract
I LABOUR under the peculiar inconvenience of having a right eye of normal power and a short-sighted left eye. The numerals on the face of a clock of an inch high are visible to the right eye at 12 feet distant; but in order to discern them as clearly with my left eye I require to bring that organ of vision as near to the figures as 8 inches. On looking at my gold chain hanging on my breast in daylight and with both eyes, the chain, coloured yellow and towards the left, is perceived by the right eye, while a steely blue chain, another, yet the same, is perceived about an inch to the right and a little higher up. By artificial light the same phenomenon presents itself, but the difference of colour is not so apparent; the yellow to the right is only dimmer. Again, when a page of NATURE is being read with the short-sighted eye, there appears, about an inch to the left, part of the same column, small, and the black, under artificial light, like weak purple. The right-hand side of this ghost-like column is lost to the right eye, being commingled with the larger, darker letters seen by the short-sighted left, which cover it like the more recent writing on a palimpsest. Middle life was reached before the discovery was made. These experiences must be gone through with intent, for objects generally being perceived altogether with the right eye, all that the left seems good for is to supply a little more light. The perception of the difference of colour is as good with the one eye as the other, and the short-sighted eye can read smaller type.
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SHAW, J. Peculiar Eyes. Nature 45, 104 (1891). https://doi.org/10.1038/045104a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/045104a0
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