178 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it is plain that the central portion of each wave-front will be retarded 

 more than the marginal part, having a greater thickness to pass through, 

 so that the central part will lag back ; and, when the wave-front emerges, 

 its form will have become concave, instead of convex ; and as, with the 



Diagram 3. 



particular form of lens that we have assumed used, its form will be 

 spherical, each wave will run to a center or focus, and create there a 

 great agitation. 



Now, the same thing exactly will happen if the vibrating molecule 

 is removed to an indefinitely great distance, as for instance to one of 

 the stars : in this case the wave-fronts will be sensibly plane, on account 

 of the distance of the center of curvature, just as the surface of water 

 standing in a pail is sensibly plane, although the center of its curvature 

 is only four thousand miles distant. 



It is found experimentally, or it can be demonstrated mathemati- 

 cally, that the vibrating molecule, the center of the lens, and the focus 

 of the emerging concave wave-fronts, lie in a straight line ; with this 

 fact distinctly in mind, it is clear that a second vibrating molecule, say, 

 situated in another star, in nearly the same direction from the earth as 

 the first, will also form a second center of agitation or focus, exactly be- 

 hind the center of the lens, as viewed from that star ; and so on frora 

 any number of vibrating molecules, each and every one producing a 

 different center of agitation, exactly behind the center of the lens as 

 viewed from them, of course within reasonable limits on each side of 

 the direction of the axis of the lens. 



We are now in a position to understand clearly the reason why we 

 are able to see distinctly the forms of distant objects. 



Diagram 4 represents the lens of the eye, with plane wave-fronts 

 of light, from two different vibrating molecules, situated in different 

 stars, entering it, and running to a focus or center of intense vibra- 

 tion behind it. The short lines at the back of the eye represent the 

 so-called rods of the retina ; when one only of these rods receives 



