828

Advantages in the structure of the eye in certain animals.

Every object we see will appear larger at midnight than at midday, and larger in the morning than at midday.

This happens because the pupil of the eye is much smaller at midday than at any other time.

In proportion as the eye or the pupil of the owl is larger in proportion to the animal than that of man, so much the more light can it see at night than man can; hence at midday it can see nothing if its pupil does not diminish; and, in the same way, at night things look larger to it than by day.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XIV: Anatomy, Zoology and Physiology.
. . .
808
On corpulency and leanness.
809,
810,
811
The divisions of the head.
812,
813
Physiological problems.
814,
815
The divisions of the animal kingdom.
816,
817
Miscellaneous notes on the study of Zoology.
818,
819,
820,
821
muscles.
822,
823,
824,
825,
826
Comparative study of the organs of sense in men and animals.
827
Advantages in the structure of the eye in certain animals.
828,
829,
830,
831
Remarks on the organs of speech.
832,
833
On the conditions of sight.
834,
835
The seat of the common sense.
836
On the origin of the soul.
837
On the relations of the soul to the organs of sense.
838
On involuntary muscular action.
839
Miscellaneous physiological observations.
840,
841,
842
The laws of nutrition and the support of life.
843,
844,
845,
846,
847
On the circulation of the blood.
848
. . .