perfectly, but he was incapable of seeing any difference between red,
blue, pink, brown, and white. Another man, who was a silk-weaver, had to
change his trade, because he could not distinguish between red, pink,
and sky blue. A Genevese artist whom circumstances compelled to paint a
portrait by candle-light, used yellow for pink in laying on his flesh
tints, with a pleasing result that may be readily imagined. In fact, the
instances of colour-blindness mentioned by physiological writers are
almost innumerable, and I should only weary my readers if I related all
the authentic cases of this singular affliction. One instance, however,
which was very carefully observed by Wartmann, a distinguished German
oculist, merits our attention. The afflicted person, whom Wartmann
speaks of as D., was thirty-three years old. Those of his brothers and
sisters whose hair was fair suffered from the same infirmity, but those
whose hair was dark were exempt from it. Like so many others who are
colour-blind, he could not distinguish between cherries and their
leaves, and confounded a sea-green piece of paper with a scarlet ribbon
placed near it. A rose of the ordinary hue appeared greenish-blue. Being
anxious to see if reflected, refracted, and polarized light exercised a
different action on his retina, Wartmann tried him first with the
prismatic spectrum, but he could only distinguish four colours,—blue,
green, yellow, and red. He could distinguish perfectly the peculiar
black lines seen crossing the spectrum in certain places, and known by
the name of Fraunhofer’s lines. He then placed in his hands thirty-seven
pieces of differently coloured glass, but he could only distinguish four
varieties. The colours produced by polarized light seemed to give the
patient quite as much trouble as those produced in the ordinary way.
Chocolate brown appeared reddish brown; purple, dark blue; and violet, a
dirty blue. When colours were illuminated by sunlight, they seemed to
him to be redder than usual, even green and blue appearing red.
In considering cases of colour-blindness, it is very difficult not to be
misled into using wrong terms, as applied to colour, for we have no
possible means of knowing what colour it is that is really seen by the
patient. Thus, for instance, Dr. Whewell could not distinguish between
red and green. But what colour did he really see? Did he see the leaves
and cherries both red or both green, or was it some colour between the
two that was impressed upon his retina? Again, great care must be
exercised in placing implicit reliance on the statement of persons who
are colour-blind, for we must recollect that their only means of
conveying the results of what they experience is by the use of an organ
that is confessedly defective, and which is quite likely to deceive
them, and us too, without their being parties to the deception.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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