The Stereoscope, a word derived from στέρεος, solid, and σκόπειν, to see, is an optical instrument, of modern invention, for representing, in apparent relief and solidity, all natural objects and all groups or combinations of objects, by uniting into one image two plane representations of these objects or groups as seen by each eye separately. In its most general form the Stereoscope is a binocular instrument, that is, is applied to both eyes; but in two of its forms it is monocular, or applied only to one eye, though the use of the other eye, without any instrumental aid, is necessary in the combination of the two plane pictures, or of one plane picture and its reflected image. The Stereoscope, therefore, cannot, like the telescope and microscope, be used by persons who have lost the use of one eye, and its remarkable effects cannot be properly appreciated by those whose eyes are not equally good.
When the artist represents living objects, or groups of them, and delineates buildings or landscapes, or when he copies from statues or models, he produces apparent solidity, and difference of distance from the eye, by light and shade, by the diminished size of known objects as regulated by the principles of geometrical perspective, and by those variations in distinctness and colour which constitute what has been called aerial perspective. But when all these appliances have been used in the most skilful manner, and art has exhausted its powers, we seldom, if ever, mistake the plane picture for the solid which it represents. The two eyes scan its surface, and by their distance-giving power indicate to the observer that every point of the picture is nearly at the same distance from his eye. But if the observer closes one eye, and thus deprives himself of the power of determining differences of distance by the convergency of the optical axes, the relief of the picture is increased. When the pictures are truthful photographs, in which the variations of light and shade are perfectly represented, a very considerable degree of relief and solidity is thus obtained; and when we have practised for a while this species of monocular vision, the drawing, whether it be of a statue, a living figure, or a building, will appear to rise in its different parts from the canvas, though only to a limited extent.
