Color-tone depends on the wave-length, as has been said, but this is far from the whole truth; the whole truth, indeed, is one of the most curious and significant facts about color vision. We have said that each color-tone is the response to a particular wave-length. But any color-tone can be got without its particular wave-length being present at all; all that is necessary is that wave-lengths centering about this particular one shall be present. A mixed light, consisting of two wave-lengths, the one longer and the other shorter than the particular wave which when acting alone gives a certain color-tone, will give that same color-tone. For example, the orange color resulting from the isolated action of a wave-length of 650 is given also by the combined action of wave-lengths of 600 and 700, in amounts suitably proportioned to each other. A point of experimental technique: in _mixing colored lights_ for the purpose of studying the resulting sensations, we do not mix painter's pigments, since the physical {215} conditions then would be far from simple, but we mix the lights themselves by throwing them together either into the eye, or upon a white screen. We can also, on account of a certain lag or hang-over in the response of the retina, mix lights by rapidly alternating them, and get the same effect as if we had made them strike the retina simultaneously. By mixing a red light with a yellow, in varying proportions, all the color-tones between red and yellow can be got--reddish orange, orange and yellowish orange. By mixing yellow and green lights, we get all the greenish yellow and yellowish green color-tones; and by mixing green and blue lights we get the bluish greens and greenish blues. Finally, by mixing blue and red lights, in varying proportions, we get violet, purple and purplish red. Purple has no place in the spectrum, since it is a sensation which cannot be aroused by the action of any single wave-length, but only by the mixture of long and short waves. To get all the color-tones, then, we need not employ all the wave-lengths, but can get along with only four. In fact, we can get along with three. Red, green and blue will do the trick. Red and green lights, combined, would give the yellows; green and blue would give the greenish blues; and red and blue would give purple and violet. The sensation of white results--to go back to Newton--from the combined action of all the wave-lengths. But the stimulus _need_ not contain _all_ the wave-lengths. Four are enough; the three just mentioned would be enough. More surprising still, two are enough, if chosen just right. Mix a pure yellow light with a pure blue, and you will find that you get the sensation of white--or gray, if the lights used are not strong.