To gain a clear insight into the mode in which a single lens serves to magnify objects, it will be necessary to revert to the phenomena of ordinary vision. An eye free from any defect has a considerable power of adjusting itself to very considerable distances. One of the special functions of the eye is bringing the rays of light, by a series of dioptric mechanisms, to a perfect focus on its nervous sensitive layer, the retina. The eye in this respect has been compared to a photographic camera. But this is not quite correct. The retina is destined simply to receive the images furnished by the dioptric apparatus, and has no influence upon the formation of these images. The luminous rays are refracted by the dioptric apparatus; the images would be formed quite as well--indeed, even better in certain cases--if the retina were not there. The dioptric apparatus and its action are absolutely independent of the retina.
The same laws with regard to the passage of the rays of light into the human eye hold good, as those already enunciated in the previous pages. As to change of direction when rays are passing obliquely from a medium of low density to that of a higher density, _i.e._, it changes its course, and is bent towards the perpendicular. On leaving the denser for the rarer medium it is bent once more from the perpendicular. Again, by means of a convex lens, the rays of light from one source will be refracted so as to meet at a point termed _the principal focus_ of vision.
In the eye there are several surfaces separating the different media where refraction takes place. The refractive index of the aqueous humour and the tears poured out by the lachrymal gland is almost equal to that of the cornea. We may, therefore, speak of the refracting surfaces as three, viz.: Anterior surface of cornea, anterior surface of lens, and posterior surface of lens; and also of the refracting media as three--the aqueous humour, the lens, and vitreous humour. These several bodies are so adapted in the normal eye that parallel rays falling on the cornea are converged to a focus at the most sensitive spot (the _yellow spot_, or _fovea centralis_) in the retina, a point representing to the principal focus of the eye. A line drawn from this point through the centre of the cornea is called the optic axis of the eye-ball.