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Read Ebook: Spectropia; or Surprising Spectral Illusions Showing Ghosts Everywhere and of Any Colour by Brown J H
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SPECTROPIA;
OR,
SURPRISING SPECTRAL ILLUSIONS.
SHOWING
GHOSTS EVERYWHERE,
AND OF ANY COLOUR.
BY J. H. BROWN.
INTRODUCTION.
The following Illusions are founded on two well-known facts; namely, the persistency of impressions, and the production of complementary colours, on the retina.
The explanations are divided into two Parts. The FIRST consists of directions for seeing the spectres. The SECOND, a brief and popular, as well as a scientific, description of the manner in which the spectres are produced, and is intended for the use of those who may wish to know more of this subject than is contained in the first Part.
As an apology for the apparent disregard of taste and fine art in the plates, such figures are selected as best serve the purpose for which they are intended.
J. H. BROWN.
OLD STEYNE, BRIGHTON.
DIRECTIONS.
Those who use gaslight will find it convenient, after having looked at the plate as above described, to extemporise a darkened room by having the gaslight turned low; or one end of the room may be darkened by placing a screen before the gas, lamp, or candle light.
Should any one not be able to see the spectre's features, the reason will be, either that the eyes have been allowed to wander, or the head to move, while looking at the plate.
Many persons will see some one coloured spectre better than the others, in consequence of their eyes not being equally sensitive to all colours.
The colours in the plate will be found to reverse themselves in the spectres, as explained elsewhere, the spectres always appearing of the complementary colour to that of the plate from which it is obtained. Thus, blue will appear orange, and orange blue, &c.
LIST OF THE PLATES.
This winged figure of Victory will give a white spectre by artificial light , the red wreaths green, the green roses red, and the orange stars blue.
This black figure will give a white spectre.
This will give a dark spectre.
This green figure will give a red spectre.
And this red figure will give a green spectre.
This orange figure will give a blue spectre.
And this blue figure an orange spectre.
This purple hand will give a yellow spectre.
And this yellow figure of Victory will give a purple spectre.
The face of this figure will come out green in the spectre, the garment red, and the cloud white.
This black skeleton will make a white spectre.
This skeleton will also give a white spectre, with a yellow mantle.
This figure and broom will give a yellow spectre, cloak and hat red, and moon white.
These figures will give green and yellow spectres.
This Cupid will give a rose-coloured spectre, with bow and arrow yellow.
This is a rainbow with colours reversed, the spectre of which will be found a good resemblance of nature, especially when seen on a cloudy sky.
The colours of the spectres produced by these figures will not only be subject to a slight variation in different eyes, but also by the degree in which the plates are illuminated while being looked at.
A POPULAR AND SCIENTIFIC DESCRIPTION.
It is a curious fact that, in this age of scientific research, the absurd follies of spiritualism should find an increase of supporters; but mental epidemics seem at certain seasons to affect our minds, and one of the oldest of these moral afflictions--witchcraft--is once more prevalent in this nineteenth century, under the contemptible forms of spirit-rapping and table-turning. The modern professor of these impostures, like his predecessors in all such disreputable arts, is bent only on raising the contents of the pockets of the most gullible portion of humanity, and not the spirits of the departed, over which, as he well knows, notwithstanding his profane assumption, he can have no power.
One thing we hope in some measure to further in the following pages, is the extinction of the superstitious belief that apparitions are actual spirits, by showing some of the many ways in which our senses may be deceived, and that, in fact, no so-called ghost has ever appeared, without its being referable either to mental or physiological deception, or, in those instances where several persons have seen a spectre at the same time, to natural objects, as in the case mentioned by Dr. Abercrombie, in his work on "The Intellectual Powers:"--"A whole ship's company were thrown into the utmost consternation, by the apparition of a cook who had died a few days before. He was distinctly seen walking ahead of the ship, with a peculiar gait, by which he was distinguished when alive, from having one of his legs shorter than the other. On steering the ship toward the object, it was found to be a piece of floating wreck."
A ghost, according to the general descriptions of those who fancy they have been favoured with a sight of one, appears to be of a pale phosphorescent white, or bluish white colour; usually indistinct, and so transparent that objects are easily seen through it. When moving, it glides in a peculiar manner, the legs not being necessary to its locomotion.
All the senses are more or less subject to deception, but the eye is pre-eminently so; especially in the case of individuals who are in ill health, because the sensibility of the retina is then generally much exalted, as is also the imagination.
We may divide the illusions to which the sense of sight is liable into four kinds. First, mental, or those arising in the brain itself, and only referred to the eye. Second, those produced by the structure of the eye. Third, those arising from the impressions of outward objects on the retina. Fourth, those produced by various combinations of the foregoing. It is only the second and third we shall have occasion to touch upon. But before we can well understand their nature, it will be necessary to get a slight knowledge of the structure of the eye, and some idea respecting the nature of light.
This distance can easily be perceived by getting an impression on the retina, according to the "Directions," page 4, and then, on performing the above experiment, the arterial ramifications and the central spot will be distinctly perceived to move over the spectral figure.
We now pass on to consider some of the leading properties of Light. There have been many theories propounded from time to time in order to explain the various phenomena connected with this subject, but only one accords well with all, and that is called the undulatory or vibratory theory, which, from its numerous complications, will compel us to confine ourselves to a consideration of that part only which is necessary to our present use. This theory regards light as the vibrations of an imponderable ether pervading all space, the number of these vibrations varying in a given time for each of the three primary colours--blue, yellow, and red--the greatest number producing blue, the least red, and an intermediate number yellow, all other colours being produced by the combination of these in various proportions. Any two of the three primary colours mixed together makes the complementary colour to the third, and the third is also complementary to it. Thus, blue and yellow make green, which is the complementary colour to red; red and blue make purple, complementary to yellow; yellow and red make orange, complementary to blue. When the three primary colours are mixed together, white is the result: so that when a ray of white light falls upon a piece of paper, and all the vibrations are equally reflected, the paper will appear white, and if they are all absorbed, it will appear black; but, if the paper absorbs some and reflects others, it will appear coloured. Thus, if it absorbs those producing red, it will appear green, from the mixture of the vibrations producing blue and yellow; and if it absorbs blue and yellow, and reflects red, then it will appear red. In this manner any object we look at will appear of any particular colour, according to which vibrations it absorbs and which it reflects.
The retina is so admirably constructed that it is susceptible of different impressions of colour by these different vibrations, except in the case of a few individuals, who are either blind to all colour, and therefore see everything black or white, and their intermediate shades, or who are blind to only one or two colours.
When we look steadily at a red object for a few seconds, that part of the retina on which the image impinges begins to get less sensitive to vibrations producing red, but more sensitive to those producing blue and yellow; so that on turning the eye away from the red object, and permitting a little white light to enter it, that part of the retina which received the red image will, in consequence of its diminished sensibility to that colour, and its exalted sensibility to blue and yellow, be able to perceive the two latter colours best, and by their mixture will give rise to a green image of the red object. The same thing will be observed with all the other colours; the secondary image or spectre always appearing of the complementary colour to the object from which the impression is obtained.
The duration and vividness of these impressions on the retina vary greatly in different individuals, and can be procured from almost any object. A person may, after looking steadily, and as often happens, unconsciously, for a short time at printed or painted figures, on paper, porcelain, &c., see, on turning the head in some other direction, a life-sized or colossal spectre , and there can be little doubt but that many of the reputed ghosts originate in this manner.
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