optogramn.
/ˈɒptəɡram/, U.S. /ˈɑptəˌɡræm/ Now chiefly historical.
An image formed on the retina which, after death, has been rendered permanent by chemical fixatives.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > thing seen > [noun] > (retained) visual image
spectrum1786
photogene1864
negative after-image1870
incidental images1876
optogram1878
1878 M. Foster Text Bk. Physiol. (ed. 2) iii. ii. 416 In this way Kühne succeeded in obtaining promising ‘optograms’.
1890 C. L. Morgan Animal Life & Intell. 276 If a rabbit be killed at the moment when the image, say, of a window, is formed on the retina, and the membrane at once plunged in a solution of alum, the image may be fixed, and an ‘optogram’ of the window may be seen on the retina.
1916 W. B. Pillsbury Fund. Psychol. iv. 115 If the rabbit..is killed and the retina fixed as one would fix a photographic plate, a picture of the window can be seen on the retina. Such an optogram is shown in figure 42.
1978 R. Egan ‘Weekend’ Second Bk. Ghosts 124 A strangler who faced his victim for about five minutes in bright sunshine would, they say, be identifiable if the optogram could be developed within half an hour.
1993 Sci.-fiction Stud. 20 356 From laboratory to legend to literature and cinema, optograms and their variants have..continued to fascinate scientists, storytellers, and the public.
1999 Folklore (Nexis) 1 Jan. 13 [They] asserted that the ‘optogram’ found in dead eyes could be developed, like a film.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1878