BLUNDERS From the Eclectic Review. OF VISION-COLOR-BLINDNESS. SOME years ago a party of gentlemen | Cases of color-blindness must, of course, were discussing the question of blindness over their wine in the mansion of a northern noble. It was stated by one of the company that persons had been known to lose the power of vision, so far as one eye was concerned, long before they had any consciousness of the defect. Polite doubts were expressed on the point. Every one would admit that a man might labor under a mental or moral cataract without being particularly alive to the infirmity, but physical opacity was too conspicuous an evil to be long concealed. More in jest than with any suspicion of the result, the loudest of the skeptics was requested to ascertain whether his own organs were "all right." Closing one eye, he exclaimed, with a start of horror: "Why, bless me, I can scarcely see at all!" He himself was in the very predicament he had refused to accredit. However startling such a case may seem, there are undoubtedly many persons who suffer from eccentricities of vision without ever discovering the defect until they have ripened (in their own opinion) into perfect men. Perhaps not even then. Entering any assembly consisting of a thousand individuals we might safely exclaim: "Ladies and gentlemen, there are probably twenty people in this respectable company who are more or less affected with chromatopseudopsis, other wise parachromatism, otherwise dyschro matopsis, otherwise dyschrosis, otherwise Daltonism." Of course the audience would be greatly alarmed by this announcement, and the fairer portion might become quite indignant, naturally supposing that some wicked imputation lay concealed under such learned terms. To pacify them it would be necessary to explain that certain persons were incapable of perceiving certain colors, or that they confounded one with another; in fact, that the human eye was subject to a variety of chromatic heresies, although the owner might think himself as orthodox in vision as every man deems himself in the Faith. have frequently occurred amongst our forefathers, but these esteemed individuals do not appear to have systematized their observations at all. Every now and then a person conducts himself so strangely that his friends are compelled to conclude that a 66 screw must be loose" either in his eye or in his brain. The writer of this article well remembers how he first discovered that such a visual peculiarity existed. Walking out with a companion let us take the names of Jones and Jenkins for the moment the latter happened to make a remark about the color of a door, which he (Jones) declared to be red, and we (Jenkins) knew to be green. Thinking that this assertion was a mere specimen of boyish fun, Jenkins laughed as Brother Martin might laugh when my Lord Peter assured him (in Swift's wonderful Tale of a Tub) that a loaf of bread was a shoulder of mutton. But when Jones repeated the observation with perfect gravity, and, spite of all remonstrances, protested that the door was just as fiery-looking as a soldier's coat, Jenkins felt it incumbent upon him to take high ground, and to break a lance in the cause of Truth. Sharp words were soon exchanged. "What on earth," he asked, "can make you say that the door is red?" "And what on earth," replied Jones, "can make you say that the door is green ?" "Why," replied Jenkins, fiercely, "it is as plain as possible that the door is green." "No," retorted Jones, in great anger, "it is as plain as possible that the door is red." Well there was nothing for it apparently but a battle. We were just at an age when knotty controversies are extremely liable to finish with a fight. War was accordingly proclaimed. If Jones had beaten Jenkins, we presume the door would have been decidedly red; if Jenkins had beaten Jones, the door would have been as decidedly green-such is the logic of physical force. Fortunately, when the two belligerents, like the knights of the silver shield, were on the brink of an engagement, an acquaintance came by, and the matter was referred to arbitration. "Pray," said Jenkins to the pacificator, "will you tell us if that door is green?" "Certainly it is green," said he," and so must you be to put such a question." On further inquiry, when Jones was sufficiently cool to submit to an examination touching his chromatic perceptions, it appeared that the two hues were indistinguishable to his eye; that he gave the name of red to every object which belonged to either class; and that, in his opinion, a brick building in the distance was of the same tint as the lawn on which it stood! Until recently, little has been done to investigate this infirmity upon an extensive scale. Dr. Dalton of Manchester was the first person in England who drew any marked attention to the subject. He himself could only perceive two, or at most three, distinctions of hue in the solar spectrum; and, therefore, a rainbow must have seemed to him like a tame arch of yellow and blue. He could perceive no distinction between woolen yarn whether dyed crimson or dark blue. Specimens of claret-colored cloth bore a strong resemblance to mud. If stockings had been spotted with blood, he would hardly have suspected that the stains were any thing more than mere dirt. He compared a florid complexion to a dull blackish blue upon a white ground; so that a ruddy countenance produced the same impression upon his retina as dilute black ink smeared upon writing-paper. And when he mounted his scarlet gown at Oxford, he pronounced it to be of the same hue as the grass of the fields. It is, however, to Professor George Wilson of Edinburgh, that the public is indepted for the largest collection of facts on this interesting topic, and to his researches we are indebted for some of the illustrations of chromatic error about to be adduced. Let us premise, however, that though color-blindness is a defect, it is not exactly a disease. It is generally born with the individual, and continues with him during life. The eye appears to be complete in its structure, and in other respects discharges its duties in as exemplary a manner as the most respectable organ of the frame. First, there are cases in which persons are perfectly unable to distinguish colors at all. They know that black is black, and white is white; but as to the prismatic tints they are completely in the dark. Not many years ago there was a man in Edinburgh who was in this unlucky condition. By some freak of fortune, almost as whimsical as if a deaf person were apprenticed to an organist, this poor fellow was brought up a house-painter. Compelled to dabble with colors continually, he would have fallen into the most egregious blunders; but marrying a woman whom he could trust to choose and mix his pigments, he was enabled to pursue his calling without any very violent breaches of propriety. On one occasion, however, when this valuable helpmate happened to be from home, the husband undertook to paint a room in a public building. He prepared, as he thought, a capital stone-tint, and was rapidly covering the walls with the mixture when he was arrested by some one who told him that he was decorating the place with an unquestionable blue. Instances like this, however, where there exists a total insensibility to all the leading tints, are comparatively rare. More frequently it happens that the individual is blind to one particular color, or at least incapable of detecting any marked difference between two very discrepant hues. Red is, generally speaking, the shibboleth of those who are imperfectly versed in the language of vision. As we call an object black when it reflects no prismatic ray to the eye, persons thus circumstanced will see little more distinction between blood and tar than a phlebotomist would perceive between the blood of an Englishman and that of a Spaniard. A clerk in a public office frequently astonished his superiors by signing his name to official documents in red ink-he believing that he was doing it in the legitimate Japan. A gentleman who had sent a letter to his family whilst on a journey was surprised to learn on returning home that the first part of the epistle was in black ink and the latter in red. A banker in London made such repeated mistakes in this way that he was at length compelled to keep his inks in standishes of a different shape. Sporting gentlemen have been known who could not discriminate between the black coats and the red ones in the field, particularly when the light was waning. To eyes of this description a regiment of soldiers would appear as mild in their habiliments as if they more than once become acquainted with their parachromatism—not certainly under that title-by finding that their companions could make easy havoc amongst the cherries whilst they, from inability to discriminate between the hues of the fruit and leaves, were compelled to explore the trees laboriously, and to commit their depredations on a very unsatisfactory scale. The same difficulty has attended their operations whilst foraging in the strawberry-beds. Other most amusing instances are on record. A gentleman was requested to pick out all the greens from a number of pieces of stained glass: he selected the red, brown, claret, yellow, and pink; and when asked to say which was the most emphatic green of the group, he unhesitatingly fixed upon the claret. A surgeon called upon his tailor intending to order a pair of brown pantaloons: he selected the cloth himself; but when the garment came home, the color proved to be as sanguinary as if he were on the point of starting for the wars. He went on another occasion determined to secure his favorite brown, but not being properly aware of his defect, the result was just as unfortunate as before: this time the color adopted was a violent green; and the poor fellow was compelled to get the articles dyed in order that he might not be mistaken for a soldier or a huntsman. A nobleman, whose vision was similarly affected, began to banter his lady one day for wearing a scarlet dress. Her ladyship was at a loss to understand the joke, for her dress was as verdant as the garb of spring. A gentleman, who was fond of drawing used to perpetrate landscapes in which the trees were were a regiment of civilians, and but for their arms and the warlike cut of their garments, a file of heroes might almost be mistaken for a funeral procession. Many comical mistakes have arisen from this source. A gentleman relates in the Philosophical Transactions how he was shocked just before the marriage of his daughter by the appearance of the bridegroom in a suit of black; for in earlier times it seems that color was indispensable to matrimony. Papa insisted that the poor fellow should go home and assume some less melancholy attire; but the bride, who would probably have married him in sackcloth, like a noble woman-at least so we suspect rushed to the rescue, and declared that her lover was correctly clothed in a rich claret-colored dress. Such was the fact. One day, after service at church, a gentleman went up to a lady and inquired, with great concern, for whom she was in mourning. For no one, was the reply: why should he imagine that such was the case? The querist explained-was not her bonnet a deep black? Certainly not: it was crimson velvet! A person who had lost a relative greatly scandalized his friends by sealing his black-edged letters with red wax, just as many an heir-at-law would probably do, if, after testifying his regard for the memory of the departed by using a sheet with the deepest and darkest of borders, he were at liberty to symbolize his genuine sentiments when he came to the seal. But this was nothing to the blunder of an upholsterer's apprentice who was sent to purchase some black cloth to cover a coffin, and returned with a quantity of scarlet, under the impression that it was as sorrowful a sable as the occasion re-adorned with red foliage; and when quired. Next, let us mention a series of cases in which one color is simply confounded with another. Red, for example, may be habitually mistaken for green, or crimson identified with blue. Take the former species of defect; for the clashing of green with red is one of the most popular forms of heterodoxy in regard to hues. A gentleman was asked if he saw any object stretched upon a hedge. He declared there was none. The fact was that a red cloak happened to be thrown over it, and though the exact position was pointed out to him, he could not perceive any difference in color between the garment and the green of Nature. Boys have he attempted to execute a marine view, prodigy performed. The professor, mean- | from an undertaker in sable." It need while, did not appear at all distressed. scarcely be added that as the cause of the There was no chuckling on the part of infirmity is so subtle, and its exact seat the students at his discomfiture. On the not yet ascertained, all theory must rest contrary, he seemed to retire from the upon a basis of mere conjecture. experiment as if he were perfectly victorious; and the pupils on inquiry asserted that the vegetable tincture had succumbed without demur, and that the operation had come off with flying colors. There are many varieties, however, of chromato - pseudopsis that abominable Greek compound again! In one large class of cases, namely, those in which people are required to distinguish between the more delicate shades of composite colors, Professor Wilson considers that inability is the rule and not the exception. Want of space forbids us touch upon these, and for the same reason we must abstain from discussing the different theories which have been adduced to explain the phenomena of color blindness. Dr. Dalton, who had a right to express an opinion on the subject, since his name has been attached to the infirmity, suggested that one of the humors of the eye might be tinged with some hue which, in his case, he supposed to be "some modification of blue!" Consequently the light transmitted through the optic chamber would be affected on the same principle, as if a little window of stained glass were inserted in the organ. But when, after the chemist's death, a scientific inquest was held upon his eye, the humors were found to be perfectly pellucid, and the crystalline lens exhibited the yellowish tinge which is customary in the aged. Failing to detect the cause in the liquids of the organ, Sir David Brewster conjectured that the retina might possibly be colored; but of this there is no satisfactory proof. Besides these and other chromatic hypotheses, there are theories which refer the defect to some specialty either in the nervous apparatus of the eye, or in the brain, or in both. A phrenologist, of course, settles the question by pointing to the region immediately above the eye but beneath the eye-brow, and if he finds it unsatisfactorily developed, he exclaims: "Sir, number Twenty-six is miserably deficient, what can you expect ?* Thank your stars if you can tell a judge in crimson But whatever may be the true explanation of this phenomenon, color-blindness has been productive of much inconvenience, and in some instances completely cripples the patient so far as certain occupations are concerned. A bookbinder had an apprentice whom he was obliged to discharge, because the youth ran him into frequent scrapes with his customers by binding books in all sorts of unexpected hues. An artist had a disciple who was compelled to abandon painting, for in copying a picture he made the roses blue, he flushed his sky with crimson instead of azure, and a horse which ought to have figured in the landscape in a modest brown hide was dyed a bluish green. A milliner once mended a lady's black silk dress with crimson, and a tailor at Plymouth, to whom a dark blue coat was sent to be tinkered, returned it patched at the elbows with pieces as bright as arterial blood. A tailor's man, who had just been promoted to a post which required him to match colors for the journeymen, applied to Professor Wilson in great distress saying that he must lose his situation unless he could be cured. Number twenty-six appeared to be in a state of insanity, for, amongst other freaks, it had persuaded him to order green strings for the back of a scarlet livery waistcoat, to mate greens with browns, and to put red stripes on some trowsers in place of blue. A haberdasher was asked what became of shopmen whose number twentysix was sadly at fault. From his reply it seems that these unfortunates frequently take refuge in mourning establishments, where, of course, no appreciation of tints is required, either in the "deep affliction hue," or in the "mitigated sorrow department." Chemists have been embarrassed in their pursuits by inability to determine the colors of their precipitates, and a geologist has been known to take a person with him whilst examining a red sandstone district, to point out in the distance where the herbage ended and the red rock appeared. We remember a question of title arising with regard to some property described on a plan, and * Color is numbered twenty-six in Spurzheim's stated in the deeds to be colored red. But system. there was a fine long slip of ground which manifestly exhibited the same tint, though judging from certain extrinsic evidence it ought to have been painted green. Had not the parties concerned been amicably disposed, the mistake of a color-blind clerk might thus have given rise to a superb amount of litigation. Imagine, too, a young painter madly in love, endeavor ing to portray the idol of his heart. What would be her consternation on discovering that her soft blue eyes were a flaming red; that her nose was of the greenest tint, and that her locks hung in rich purple ringlets upon a neck of spotless drab ? There are three or four points connected with color-blindness which we can barely note. First, it is frequently hereditary in families. A Dr. Earle, of the United States, ascertained that amongst his own relatives there were at least twenty individuals who suffered from this oddity of vision. Secondly, ladies are said to be comparatively exempt. Professor Wilson states that in his researches he never heard of more than six feminine instances of color blindness in this country, and of these he only succeeded in capturing a single decided specimen. Ĉases There is one very serious form, how- however have turned up which show that ever, in which color-blindness might be the men do not bear the exclusive burden, productive of disastrous results. You are as all polite individuals would doubtless traveling by railway; you observe in the wish the sex to do. Thirdly, it has been distance a man waving a flag. If that alleged that the number of color-blind flag is red it indicates danger; if green, persons amongst the Society of Friends it simply denotes caution. By night the is inordinately large, and an attempt has same purpose is answered by the employ- been made to explain this inference upon ment of lamps of corresponding hue. The philosophical grounds, for it has been said train goes rushing on. There happens to that the practice of wearing apparel from be some obstruction in the road. Then which all gay tints are excluded, must follows a crash; and in an instant scores ultimately tell upon the eye, and in the of men who, but a moment before, were course of several generations the consefull of life and perfect of limb, lie mang-quences will mount up until they appear led beneath the shattered vehicles. How as a decided physical imperfection. Unis this? The person whose duty it was to fortunately for this theory Quakers are hoist the signal of danger is color-blind, not always looking at their clothes, nor and has seized the wrong flag, or the are they shut out from the varied hues of driver, whose business it was to interpret nature and art, nor does their defect bear it, is dead to the difference between red any distinct relationship, complimentary and green. It may be true that catastro- or otherwise, to the prevalent drab of phes clearly traceable to this cause may their denomination. The fact that Dalton never have occurred on our iron highways; was a member of their persuasion, and but considering that red and green are that consequently minuter researches may the hues which are most frequently con- have been instituted amongst the body, founded in color-blindness-that red is will explain why they have furnished so especially treacherous during twilight be- large a contingent of patients. Lastly, it cause it soonest disappears and that has been calculated that one individual in until recently signal- men were never every fifty is decidedly color-blind, and subjected to any practical examination taking milder cases into account, it is to test the integrity of their vision, we conjectured that one in every twenty may may well shudder at the thought that our be more or less affected. lives have repeatedly been staked upon the chance-sufficiency of an official's sight. MR JOBARD, of Brussels, has invented an arti ficial statuary marble, which is to be prepared for sculpture in a liquid state, and can be molded with the plaster figure. It is said to be pure and spotless as Carrara; transparent, polished, and hard as the real substance taken from the quarry. VOL. XLVIII.-NO. IV. MADAME JENNY LIND GOLDSCHMIDT performed at a miscellaneous concert, in Dublin, on Monday evening. The Freeman's Journal says that the appearance of the fair singer created quite a scene, all the vast assemblage seeming to bend forward whilst peal after peal of welcome greeted her. 34 |