CURIOUS NATURAL DECEPTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 293, 5 December 1908, Page 3

CURIOUS NATURAL DECEPTION.

Our sen-c deceives us curiously at times. A tiish of lightening lights up the ground for unc millionth of a second, yet it seems to us to last ev ■? su much longer What happens is that the impression remains in the eve or the retina for about one-eighth of a second , or 124.1100 times as long as the Hush lasts. II on a dark night a train is speeding along at sixty miles-au hour is lit up bv a lightning Hash, it appears statiov.nry, yet in the eighth of a second during'which «e seem to set: it the train travels 11 feet.

lint we really only see it during onemillionth of a second, and in that time I it only travels one-lnindreth of an inc.i. When a man's leg is cut off, if the. stumn be irritated -he feels the pain in his toes. This curious deception is the same as anyone tan practice oil himself by striking his elbow on the table, when'he feels'the pain in his lingers. Of course, in both places the pain is felt in the brain.

We dp not actually perceive different distances with the eye,' but judge them from various indications. When •oni*. judgment is at fault we are deceived. If you see a person in a fog, for instance, he seems to be much bigger than usual. The same thing happens when you see men or cattle on the top of a iiil! against the horrizeu in twilight. In both eases you judge them to be , farther away than they really are, ami I (.•on»c<iuently they appear uncommonly large.