Figure58 I tooke a bodkin {sic} gh & put it betwixt my eye & ye bone as neare to ye end of Backside of my eye as I could: & pressing my eye wth ye end of it (soe as to make ye curvature a, bcdef in my eye) there appeared severall white darke & coloured circles r, s, t, &c. Which circles were plainest when I continued to rub my eye wth ye point of ye bodkin {sic}, but if I held my eye & ye bodkin still, though I continued to presse my eye wth it yet ye colours circles would grow faint & often disappeare untill I renewed ym by moving my eye or ye bodkin.

59 If ye experiment were done in \a/ light roome so yt though my eyes were shut some light would get through their lidds There appeared a {illeg} or redish spot in ye midst at {illeg} greate broade blewish darke circle outmost (as ts), & wthin that another light spot srs whose colour was much like yt in ye rest of ye eye as at k. Within wch spot appeared still another blew spot r, <16> especially if I pressed my eye hard & wth a small pointed bodkin. |& outmost at vt appeared a verge of light|

60 But on ye contrary if I tryed ye experiment in very darke roome ye circle ts apeared of of a {illeg} Reddish light sr of a darkish blew & ye middle spot r appeared lighter againe; & there {sic} seemed to be a circle of darke blew \tv/ wthout ye circle ts ye outmost of all [I conceive (in ye 60th experiment) where ye curvature \of ye Retina/ at ma & fn began & was but little ye blew colour tv was caused; at ab & ef where ye Retina was most concave, ye bright circle ts was caused: at bc. & de where ye Retina was not much incurved nor strained ye darke blew circle sr was caused & at cd where ye Retina was stretched & made convex ye light spot r appe was caused. In ye 59th Experiment ye spirits were str perhaps strained out of ye Retina at ab, ef, & cd or otherways made incapable of being acted upon by light & soe {illeg} made darker colours \a lesse appearance of light/ yn ye rest of ye {eye} Retina]

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Professor Rob Iliffe
Director, AHRC Newton Papers Project

Scott Mandelbrote,
Fellow & Perne librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge

Faculty of History, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL - newtonproject@history.ox.ac.uk

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