Philosophical Observations on the Senses of Vision and Hearing
To Which Are Added, a Treatise on Harmonic Sounds, and an Essay on Combustion and Animal Heat

Published in 1780, this was the first work to suggest that specific receptors were responsible for communicating auditory and optical sensation.

John Elliott (Author)

9781108061711, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 July 2013

236 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.4 cm, 0.31 kg

Although first to suggest the possibility of light frequencies beyond the visible spectrum, the natural philosopher John Elliott (1747–87) was better known at his death for his failed suicide in front of the woman he loved. Tried for attempting to shoot her, he was acquitted but died in prison awaiting trial on the lesser charge of assault. First published in 1780, this work was his most important. Contemporary science held that vibrations of the air were directly communicated to the optic and auditory nerves and passed on to the sensorium, while Elliot proposed, through experimentation upon himself, the existence of sensory receptors, each tuned to only a limited part of the spectrum of physical frequencies. This insight led him to postulate the existence of what we now know to be ultraviolet and infrared radiation, thus paving the way for further discoveries in human sensory perception.

Preface
Part I. Observations on the Senses: 1. Of vision
2. Of taste, smell and feeling
3. Of hearing
4. Other phenomena of hearing
5. An appendix to the foregoing essay
Part II. A Treatise on Harmonic Sounds: Introduction
The theory of harmonic sounds
Part III. An Inquiry into Combustion: 1. The principal phenomena of incombustible bodies
2. The phenomena of combustible bodies
3. Of the principle on which combustion depends
4. Of the phlogiston
5. Of the heat and light attending combustion
6. Of the continuance of combustion
7. A speculation
8. Of the origin of heat in combustion
9. Of the light and colours which arise on the ignition, and combustion of bodies
10. Of respiration, and animal heat
11. Of the vital and other motions of the body
12. Of the action of the fibres, or muscular motion
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Biophysics [PHVN]