Colour vision : $b Being the Tyndall Lectures delivered in 1894 at the Royal InstitutionAbney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Science
Colour vision : $b Being the Tyndall Lectures delivered in 1894 at the Royal Institution
Abney, William de Wiveleslie, Sir
Color vision
At page 10, a description has been given of the manner in which the
field for colour and light has been determined, and if this same method
be pursued with persons suffering from this form of colour blindness
we get some remarkable results. Fig. 35 is the chart of the eye for
red and for white, which was made by a case of tobacco blindness. The
yellow spot is entirely affected, and, as is very common, it extends
to the blind spot in the eye. At no place within that area can red be
seen, though blue is immediately recognised. The extent of the field
for white is that found under normal conditions, and except for the
diseased area the same is true for the red. The fields for both eyes
are given: that for the left eye in the left-hand chart, and that for
the right eye in the right-hand chart. The small dark spots within the
5° area are places where the colour sensation is most defective. The
part in the central dark area shaded with lines in this direction ////
shows the portion of the field which is insensitive to red, though not
to _light_, whilst the remainder of the shaded central area indicates
the extent of the field which is sensitive to red. The field for light
generally is also shown by the (approximately) rectangular unshaded
area. Although the area occupied by the insensitive part of the retina
is small compared with the whole, yet it is in that part which is used
for distinct vision.
For testing for colour the apparatus, Fig. 3, arranged so that the
patch of colour has the white patch alongside, is the most useful, but
it is as well then to use a surface of patch about ½ inch square only,
and thus to confine the image as nearly as may be to the spot on the
retina which is defective. These cases of central scotoma are by no
means very easy to test; for it frequently happens that before they are
able to distinguish that there are two patches side by side, they have
to approach very close to the screen. If this be the case, however,
it will usually be found that the patches of ½ inch side are still
efficient, as the near approach of the eyes to the screen indicates
a wide area as being affected, so that the image still lies within
the diseased retinal area. In some instances the colours named will
vary very considerably; sometimes, for instance, a red will be named
as grey, and then immediately after as pale red. This is generally
due to the diseased area being small, and a very slight change in the
direction of the axis of the eye causes it to be seen in nearly its
true colour, part being viewed with the diseased and part with the
healthy portion of the retina. With the wool test, which we shall
describe later, it is the commonest thing possible for colour-blind
persons who have a central scotoma to match accurately the different
test-skeins, for the reason that the images of the skeins of wool are
so large that they are received on the parts of the retina which are
not diseased. These same colours, however, if presented to them in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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