96 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



who first began to gather statistics upon it.* They probably depend also upon differ- 

 ences in the color sense of the classes of individuals tested, which if properly followed 

 up, would lead to much needed knowledge of the causes of color-blindness, and of the 

 laws which govern it. In some recent experiments upon a closely-allied topic — 

 the sensitiveness of the eye to colors of a low degree of saturation f — I discovered 

 among fifty-four of the young men and women, who kindly aided me in that investiga- 

 tion, and who were also included in the color-blind tests, the following almost universal 

 peculiarity of color-perception, which is probably closely related to this prevalence of 

 green-blindness. This peculiarity consists of a marked lack of sensitiveness to the pres- 

 ence of green when mixed with large quantities of white. It was found, for instance,, 

 that on the average, these observers could detect the presence of 25.2 parts of red lead 

 when mixed with 100,000,000 parts of white, 23.9 parts of chrome yellow, and 125.5 

 parts of ultra marine, under the same circumstances; whereas 864.3 parts of chrome 

 green in 100,000,000 were necessary to the detection of the pigment. 



In describing those experiments, I ventured the suggestion that the difference is due 

 to a blunting of the nerves, the function of which it is to carry tbe perception of green 

 to the brain, by continual exposure to the hues of foliage, etc. That temporary incom- 

 plete color-blindness may be induced at will by wearing spectacles of a tint that over- 

 taxes certain sets of nerves, is well known. May not life-long exposure to the prevailing 

 green of the landscape, generation after generation, well be supposed to produce perma- 

 nent incomplete green-blindness? 



THE WATER OF THE FORT SCOTT ARTESIAN WELL. 



BY E. H. S. BAILEY AND E. W. WALTER. 



Several months ago our attention was called to the new artesian well which had been 

 bored at Fort Scott, in this State. Through the kindness of Mr. E. F. Ware, the secretary 

 of the Artesian Well Company, we received samples of the water, with details of the 

 conformation of the strata through which the boring passed. The original idea was to- 

 sink a gas well ; little gas however has been noticed, but a flowing artesian well has 

 been the result of the enterprise. A water of a slighty sulphurous odor rises smoothly 

 and steadily in the six-inch tube. 



In regard to the position of the well, its mouth is 840 feet above the level of the sea> 

 this computation being based on the surveys of the Gulf Railroad Company. The well 

 is bored upon the first bench on the south side of the Marmaton river, at the foot of the 

 bluff, and 550 feet from the channel. The mouth of the well is 100 feet lower than the 

 plateau. Above the mouth of the well is the bluff, consisting of limestone, hydraulic 

 cement rock, coal, fire clay, and bituminous shale. 



The diameter of the well is eight inches down to 335 feet, to which point the well 

 was tubed with iron pipe to shut off the surface-water. Below that point the well was 

 bored dry 45 feet to a depth of 380 feet, at which point the drill struck a 14-inch crevice 

 and salt water rose to within 10 feet of the surface. 



The boring was continued to a depth of 610 feet, when a different kind of water was 

 reached, which began to flow slowly from the well. At a depth of 621 feet, the boring 



* Among the most extensive and reliable of all color-blind tests are those recently carried on by 

 our own countryman, Dr. B. Joy Jefferies, who has tested 19,101 men, of whom 801 (4.18 per cent.) were 

 color-blind ; and 14,731 women, among whom be found but 11 cases. Other observers give averages 

 varying from 1 per cent, to 8 per cent. 



f Paper read before Section B, of the American Association for tbe Advancement of Science, Phila- 

 delphia, Septembers, L884. 



