On the spectral sensitivity of the human retina to light which it has scattered

Abstract Spectral threshold measurements were made with radiation traversing a rotating analyzer when the criterion used was (a) the detection of entopic (Boehm) brushes caused by scattered light, (b) the detection of the light stimulus. At 23° off-centre both spectral functions followed the scotopic curve. This was not the case at 5°, and at 1.5° the light detection threshold followed approximately the photopic curve. The brush threshold function agreed with neither the rod nor the cone curve and the unorthodox form was obtained at 1.5° and 5° off-centre also with selective light adaptation which saturated the rod mechanism. The anomaly may arise from a spectrally non-neutral transmission function of cone optics: a subsidiary experiment suggests that the long-wavelength part of the visible spectrum specially benefits by orthodromic light transmission in the cones.

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