The visuals of poking underneith one’s eye with a blunt needle
Exploring the relation between the physical eye and the experience of vision, Isaac Newton conducted the following experiment on himself:
“I tooke a bodkine gh & put it betwixt my eye & [the] bone as neare to [the] backside of my eye as I could: & pressing my eye [with the] end of it (soe as to make [the] curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared severall white darke & coloured circles r, s, t, &c. Which circles were plainest when I continued to rub my eye [with the] point of [the] bodkine, but if I held my eye & [the] bodkin still, though I continued to presse my eye [with] it yet [the] circles would grow faint & often disappeare untill I removed [them] by moving my eye or [the] bodkin.
“If [the] experiment were done in a light roome so [that] though my eyes were shut some light would get through their lidds There appeared a greate broade blewish darke circle outmost (as ts), & [within] that another light spot srs whose colour was much like [that] in [the] rest of [the] eye as at k. Within [which] spot appeared still another blew spot r espetially if I pressed my eye hard & [with] a small pointed bodkin. & outmost at vt appeared a verge of light.”
The eye was not hurt. — By this experiment. He almost blinded himself on another.
Ooh that makes my stomach hurt. We have it so easy as philosophers. I propose a moratorium on smugness with regard to being brave bold and experimental. Just for a few weeks — until I can get this image out of my mind.
James
Haha, great comment. But I actually think mindbending is the more dangerous game. (I wish I had some way to quantify the casualty rate of experimental philosophy compared to that of experimental science.)
Wow, and I used to think I’d memorised Newton’s career, experiments and all…
Well, he was always the bold-experimental type. Didn’t Newton also dabble in alchemy?
I wonder what he thought of astrology in his day with regard to his experiments in this field, for the only thing an astrologer is capable of is predicting the past.
[...] it’s good to see Isaac Newton (crazy man who nearly blinded himself) and Charles Darwin (or as Richard Dawkins calls him, the Messiah) are quite [...]