374 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ness of color nomenclature as regards blue and green thus indicates, 

 though grossly exaggerating, a real psychological fact, and in this way 

 we have an explanation of the curious fact that in widely separated 

 parts of the world (at Torres Straits, among the Esthonians at Rome, 

 etc.) as civilization progressed it was found necessary to borrow a word 

 for blue from other languages. 



There is almost complete harmony among a number of observers, 

 now very considerable, in many countries, showing that the colors chil- 

 dren first take notice of and recognize are red and yellow, most ob- 

 servers putting red first. There is no true predilection for these colors 

 at this early age because the other colors do not yet seem to have been 

 perceived. At first, doubtless, all colors appear to the infant as light 

 or dark, white or black. That this is so is indicated by the experience 

 of Dr. George Harley, who at one period of his life, in order to cure an 

 injury to the retina caused by overwork at the microscope, resolutely 

 spent nine months in absolutely total and uninterrupted darkness. 

 When he emerged he found that, like an infant, he was unable to ap- 

 preciate distance by the eye, while he had also lost the power of recog- 

 nizing colors; for the first month all light colors appeared to him 

 perfectly white and all dark colors perfectly black. He fails to state 

 the order in which the colors reappeared to him. It is well recognized, 

 however, that eyes long unexposed to light become color-blind for all 

 colors except red. Preyer's child in the fourth year was surprised that 

 in the twilight her bright blue stockings looked grey, while for some 

 time longer she always called dark green black. By the sixth year all 

 colors are seen and known with fair correctness. Among young children 

 at this age, so far as the evidence yet goes, red is rarely the preferred 

 color, this being more often yellow, green or blue. There is doubtless 

 room here for a great amount of individual difference, but on the whole 

 it appears that children prefer those colors which they have most 

 recently learnt to recognize, the colors which have all the charm of 

 novelty and newly-won possession. It is probable, too, that (as Groos 

 has also suggested) the stimulation of red is too painfully strong in this 

 stage of the development of the color sense to be altogether pleasurable, 

 in the same way that orchestral music is often only a disturbing noise 

 to children. 



One may note in this connection that hyperesthesia to color is 

 nearly always an undue sensibility to red and very rarely to any other 

 color. The case has been recorded of a highly neurotic officer who, for 

 more than thirty years, was intolerant of red-colored objects. The 

 dazzling produced by scarlet uniforms, especially in bright sunshine, 

 seriously interfered with the performance of his duties, and in private 

 life red parasols, shawls, etc., produced similar effects; he was often 

 overcome in the streets by giddiness, sometimes almost before he realized 



