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
We have to bear this consideration in mind when we take into account
the susceptibilities of animals, especially of the higher animals,
to red. The color sense, it is well known, is widely diffused among
animals; indeed this fact has been brought forward, especially by
Pouchet, to prove that there can have been no color evolution in man;
this it can scarcely be said to show, since evolution does not run in a
straight line, and it is quite conceivable and even probable that the
ancestors of man were less dependent than many lower animals, for the
means of living, on a highly developed color sense. Thus a color sense
that among some creatures is so highly developed as to include even the
ultra-violet rays, was among our own ape-like ancestors either never
developed or partially lost.
Graber, in his important investigation into the color sense of animals,
showed that of fifty animals studied by him forty showed strong color
preferences in their places of abode. In general he found, without
being able to explain the fact, that animals which prefer the dark are
red lovers, those which prefer the light are blue lovers. The common
worm, with head and tail cut off, still preferred red to blue nearly
as much as when uninjured. (This would seem to indicate the same kind
of susceptibility to unaccustomed violet rays which we have already
encountered in the phenomenon of sun-burn.) The triton and cochineal,
with eyes removed and heads covered with wax, still had delicate sense
for color and brightness. The flea infesting the dog had a finer color
sense than the bee, while nearly all the animals Graber investigated
were more or less sensitive to the ultra-red rays.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account