Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 104 December 1901 to May 1902 . ination of the eye-movements are situated in close prox-imity to the centres for the most im-portant reflex and automatic functions,and even moderate fatigue of the formercentres is known to have more or lessmarked influence on the latter. A comparison of Figs. IV. and seem to indicate that it wouldbe less fatiguing to read on the carsthan to watch the scenery. As far as themovements of the eyeball are concerned,this is undoubtedly true. But the ques-tion is complicated by the constant jarof rapid travel, and the cons
Harper's New Monthly Magazine Volume 104 December 1901 to May 1902 . ination of the eye-movements are situated in close prox-imity to the centres for the most im-portant reflex and automatic functions,and even moderate fatigue of the formercentres is known to have more or lessmarked influence on the latter. A comparison of Figs. IV. and seem to indicate that it wouldbe less fatiguing to read on the carsthan to watch the scenery. As far as themovements of the eyeball are concerned,this is undoubtedly true. But the ques-tion is complicated by the constant jarof rapid travel, and the consequentblurring effect, which causes seriousmuscular strains within the eyeball, likethose produced by looking at badlyfocussed stereopticon views. These areprobably due to the vain and persistent attempts to correct the blur by changesin the convexity of the eye lens. Thenature of the circumstances has pre-cluded experimentation, but all the dataobtained by the writer, both direct andindirect, seem to indicate that if the carrides smoothly, reading is incomparably. Fig. V.—Record of an eye fol-lowing uniformly moving objects ;obtained by the author and Mr. Cogan. It will be noticed thatthere are no vertical lines. Theexclusively oblique lines indicatethat in following moving objectsthere are no moments of rest, butthe eyes are in constant motion,more or less rapid, according asthe obliquity of the lines in therecord approaches the horizontal. Fig. Y. preferable to looking at the scenery, pro-vided the print is large and clear. Thetravelling public, at least, evidently hassome reason to be grateful to those news-papers which print the more importantnews in heavy type. It should be re-membered that in reading a foreign lan-guage the attention to details must becloser, so that the evil effects of blurringwill be more keenly felt. If the car joltsbadly, the eyes had better be kept closed,especially if one needs ones vitality atthe journeys end. To watch the scenery with a mi
Size: 986px × 2533px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorvarious, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1902
