Why Do We See Stars When Hit on the Eye?
We do not really see stars, of course, when we are hit on the eye or when we fall in such a way as to bump the front of our heads. What we do see, or think we see, is light.
To understand this we must go back to the explanation of the five senses—sight, hearing, feeling, tasting and touching. Now, each of these senses has a special set of nerves through which the sensations received by each of the senses is communicated to the brain and, as a rule, these special nerves receive no sensations excepting those which occur in their own particular field of usefulness. The eye then has nerves of vision; the nose, nerves of smell; the ear, nerves of hearing; the mouth, nerves of taste, and the entire body nerves of touch. As we have seen then, these special nerves are susceptible of receiving impressions or sensations only in their particular field. But, if you should be able to rouse the nerves of smell in an entirely artificial way and give them a sensation, they might easily act very much as though they smelled something. We find this often in the nerves of touch when we think we feel something when we do not.
Now, when some one hits you in the eye, the nerves of vision are disturbed in such a way as to produce upon the brain the sensation of seeing light. In other words, you cannot affect the eye nerves without causing the sensation of light, and that is just what happens when some one hits you in the eye.
“ARGONAUT, JUNIOR.”
Experimental Boat, 1894.
“ARGONAUT THE FIRST.”
Built 1896-1897.