The Popular Science Monthly, September, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900Various
Science
The Popular Science Monthly, September, 1900: Vol. 57, May, 1900 to October, 1900
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Thus far, however, there are only about 50 stars whose motions in the
line of sight have been used for the determination, so that the data
are yet more meagre than in the case of the proper motions. From them,
however, using a statistical method Kapteyn has derived results which
seem to show that the actual velocity of the solar system through space
is about 16 kilometres, or 10 statute miles, per second.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF RED. (II.)
BY HAVELOCK ELLIS.
The facts and considerations we have passed in review fairly indicate
the physiological and psychological preëminence of red among the colors
of the spectrum to which we are sensitive. What is the cause of that
preëminence?
It seems to me that two orders of causes have coöperated to produce
this predominant influence, one physical and depending on the special
effects of the long-waved portion of the spectrum on living matter,
the other psychological and resulting from the special environmental
influences to which man, and to some extent even the higher animals
generally, have been subjected. It is possible that these two
influences blend together and cannot at any point be disentangled; it
is possible that acquired aptitude may be inherited or that what seem
to be acquired aptitudes are really perpetuated congenital variations;
but on the whole the two influences are so distinct that we may deal
with them separately.
On the physical side the influence of the red rays, although there is
much evidence showing that it may be traced throughout the whole of
organic nature, is certainly most strongly and convincingly exhibited
on plants. The characteristic greenness of vegetation alone bears
witness to this fact. The red rays are life to the chlorophyll-bearing
plant, the violet rays are death. A meadow, it has been justly said, is
a vast field of tongues of fire greedily licking up the red rays and
vomiting forth the poisonous bile of blue and yellow. An experiment of
Flammarion’s has beautifully shown the widely different reaction of
plants to the red and violet rays. At the climatological station at
Juvisy he constructed four greenhouses--one of ordinary transparent
glass, another of red glass, another of green, the fourth of dark blue.
The glass was monochromatic, as carefully tested by the spectroscope,
and dark blue was used instead of violet because it was impossible to
obtain a perfect violet glass. These were all placed under uniform
meteorological and other conditions, and from certain plants such as
the sensitive plant, previously sown on the same day in the same soil,
eight of each kind were selected, all measuring 27 millimetres, and
placed by two and two in the four greenhouses on the 4th of July. On
the 15th of August there were notable differences in height, color
and sensitiveness, and these differences continued to become marked;
photographs of the plants on the 4th of October showed that while
those under blue glass had made no progress, those under red glass had
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