NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 151 



others descending; while others thrown nearer the focus of the light, 

 dart across the disc like shooting stars in a lesser firmaneiit ; while 

 others revolve about each other in orbits of infinite diversity. The 

 experiment is a highly interesting as well as a philosophical one, and 

 will well recompense whoever attempts it. It will require some prac- 

 tice in a tyro to adjust the card to the proper focus, so as to obtain 

 the clearest disc : but any one who knows how to use a microscope 

 will easily discover when the card is in focus. If the flame of the 

 candle is seen through it it is out of focus, and it must be advanced or 

 drawn back until a round planet-like shape is discernible. This 

 planet-like shape, which will appear crossed by a net-work, is the 

 cornea coating of the eye magnified. The pupil of the eye must now 

 be expanded, as when one examines closely a very minute object, 

 when the atomic world of globules that compose the crystalline fluid 

 will be discerned behind the net-work surface of the cornea ; and the 

 steadier one gazes, the clearer is this wonderful and beautiful spectacle 

 perceived in all its surprising variety of form, beauty, and motion. 



A better medium than the card proposed by M. Andraud I have 

 used in making this experiment. It is a small lens, (the eye-piece of 

 a broken spy-glass.) with an inch and a half focus. This held to a 

 solar lamp or candle, at six feet distance, or turned towards the full 

 moon, (which is better still,) the chamber of the eye is far more 

 intensely illumined than by means of the perforated card. The lens 

 of ordinary magnifying spectacles will serve equally as well as the 

 eye-piece named, by covering the surface with opaque paper, having 

 in the center a clear space to transmit the light throughout into the 

 pupil of the eye. 



A writer in the National Intelligencer remarks upon the above 

 described experiment as follows : The best manner of detecting the 

 globules is with a lens ; though the perforated hole shows an interest- 

 ing spectacle. The iris of the eye is also superbly magnified and 

 rendered beautifully visible with two lenses, a small and a large one, 

 placed five feet apart ; the larger one directed to the moon or a lamp, 

 and looking at it with the smaller (inch focus) placed close to the eye. 

 Indeed, the experiments may be varied so as to produce the finest 

 effects, at once novel and beautiful. Next to a telescopic view of the 

 heavens, I know nothing in science so interesting and at the same 

 time so simple as this " seeing the interior of the eye " with the eye 

 itself. 



HARMONY OF COLOR IX DRESS. 



A CORRESPOXDEXT of the London Art Journal, in treating upon 

 the subject of dress, says that " the optical effect of dark and black 

 dresses is to make the figure appear smaller, hence it is a suitable 

 color for stout persons ; black shoes diminish the apparent size of the 

 feet. On the contrary white and light-colored dresses make persons 

 appear larger. Large patterns make the figure look shorter, longitu- 

 dinal stripes, if not too wide, add to the height of the figure, horizontal 

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