In 1836, Mr Fox Talbot communicated to the Royal Society a paper “On the Optical Phenomena of certain Crystals” which he obtained by dissolving a crystal of Borax in a drop of somewhat diluted Phosphoric acid. When the acid and the salt are in proper proportions, “the field of view of the microscope is seen covered with minute circular spots, each of which is like a tuft of silk radiating from a centre, and is composed of a close assemblage of delicate acicular crystals forming a star.” Among these crystals are seen interspersed “a number of circular transparent bodies, which are tufts or stars of acicular crystals, in such close assemblage as to be in optical contact with each other, and to produce the appearance of a single individual.”
In the course of an examination of Bishop Berkeley's “New Theory of Vision,” the foundation of the Ideal Philosophy, I have found it necessary to repeat many old experiments, and to make many new ones, in reference to the functions of the eye as an optical instrument. I had imagined that many points in the physiology of vision were irrevocably fixed, and placed beyond the reach of controversy; but though this supposition may still be true in the estimation of that very limited class of philosophers who have really studied the subject, yet it is mortifying to find that the laws of vision, as established by experiment and observation, are as little understood as they were in the days of Locke and Berkeley. Metaphysicians and physiologists have combined their efforts in substituting unfounded speculation for physical truth; and even substantial discoveries have been prematurely placed in opposition to opinions of which they are the necessary result.
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