its being continuous between the object and the sense, it is able to give motion to the visual organ. Thus, Democritus was wrong in thinking that if the medium were a void, vision would be so accurate as to render an ant visible in the sky. The opinion, in fact, involves an impossibility; for vision is produced by some kind of impression upon the visual organ, and as this cannot possibly be effected by the colour which is visible, there remains only that it must be by the medium, and thus a medium there must be; so that if there were a void, vision would be, not to say inaccurate but, altogether precluded.
It has thus then been said why colour must be visible in the light; but fire is visible both in darkness and in light, and necessarily so, since it is by fire that the diaphanous becomes diaphanous. The same reasoning holds good for sound and for odour, as nothing sonorous or odorous can produce sensation when in immediate contact with the sentient organ; but by odour or sound the medium is set in motion, and by it the organ is moved. Thus, when any thing sonorous or odorous is placed immediately upon the sentient organ, no sensation is given out; and this is the case with the sense of Touch, although less evidently so; but the cause of this shall be explained hereafter. The air is the medium for sounds, while that for odour has no special appellation, for there is a particular impression common to air and water; and
