Dec. 12, 1878] 



NATURE 



119 



degrees of consistency -without altering the relative posi- 

 tion of the same, which cannot fail to be of interest and 

 value to such as wish to make and mount thin sections 

 of corals or alcyonarians, while in most of the numbers 

 there are under this head to be found notices of collec- 

 tions for sale or specimens to be exchanged, and when 

 this journal becomes, as we have no doubt it will, kno\\-n 

 to all directors and assistant-directors of zoological 

 museums we anticipate for this section a ver>' extended 

 use. Another portion of the journal is devoted to short 

 notices on general zoological subjects. Thus No. 11 

 contains a short notice by Prof. Salensky, of Kasan, on 

 the embryology of the ganoids ; one by Prof. Goette, of 

 Strasburg, on the development of the bones in the limbs 

 of vertebrates ; a note by Dr. A. Gruber, of Freiburg, on 

 [ the formation of the oviducts in the Copepods ; one by 

 Prof. Entz, of Klausenberg (Hungary), on the evolution 

 of gas from the protoplasm of some protozoa, in confir- 

 mation of a record of the same fact by Prof. T. W. 

 Engelmann ; and one by Prof. E. Martens, on our know- 

 ledge of thread-spinning snails. 



Another characteristic of this new journal is that, under 

 the heading " Personal-Xotizen," will be found a very 

 exact list of all the museums and schools of anatomy and 

 zoology- in the world, commencing with those in Germany. 

 This list has now got as far as Belgium. The directors' 

 and assistant-directors' names, with those of the professors 

 and assistant-professors, are given in full, and if, when the 

 list is complete, an index of the names of the various 

 teachers in all the colleges and schools were added, the 

 list would serve many a useful purpose. 



We feel persuaded that this most useful little journal 

 wiU require only to be known in this country to be duly 

 appreciated, and we wish its talented editor every success 

 in his undertaking. , . E. P. W. 



La Vegetacion del Nordeste de la Pr ovine ia de Entre-Rios. 

 Infornie Cientifico. Del Dr. Don P. G. Lorentz. 

 (Buenos Aires, 1878.) 



This is a book, or rather a pamphlet, of 1 79 pages of closely- 

 printed matter, and illustrated by two maps of the country 

 ' described, the natiu-e of which with regard to its vegeta- 

 tion is ver>' carefully recorded in the first division, which 

 occupies forty-seven pages. The second part consists of 

 a list of species arranged scientifically under each natural 

 order, the paragraph referring to the individual plant 

 comprising such information as to the frequency or 

 \ scarcity of the species, the colour of the flowers, period 

 ; of flowering, and any properties for which the plant may 

 I be economically valuable. These lists are useful in 

 ;many ways, for instance they often show the widespread 

 ! geographical range of many well-known plants, and in 

 ;the lists before us we find many European introductions. 

 I A separate list of thirty-two species of fungi is added, and 

 some notes on the maps given. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[ Tne Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. A^either can he undertake to return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 *ioti<^f is taken of anonymous communications. 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 ts impossible otherwise to ensure the appearatue even of com- 

 mumcations containing interesting atul novel facts. ^ 



Was Homer Colour-Blind ? 

 '^^^1 reading Dr. Pole's two papers (Nature, vol. xviii. 

 . 670. 700) my first feeling was to ask : '« But how could 



' The blind old man of Scio's rocky isle ' 



' tl^^^L j'^^*'"^ ^^ ^^ ^^°"t colour ? •' Presuming, however, that 



:!!^^"'°'' °J ^'s blindness might be unwarranted, and further, 



•a: It may be a mistake to suppose, as many do, that the 



" Iliad " is a collection of rhapsodies by different poets, I again 

 asked myself: "Are there in Homer more anomalies in the 

 nomenclature of colours than may be accounted for by the vague 

 use of words? Are there more than we should find in this 

 country among uneducated men of the labouring class ? " About 

 two years ago I made extensive inquiry as to the prevalence of 

 colour-blindness among children, and in the village schools of 

 this part of Somersetshire I found that the girls could name the 

 neutral as well as the other tints readily and correctly, but that 

 many of the boys had but about half-a-dozen words to use, and 

 would refer orange to red or to yellow, and purple to brown or 

 to blue, merely for want of terms ; for they could match the test 

 papers with other papers, or with the girls' dresses. 



If we refer to the old ballads and early romance poetry of o\ir 

 own and other languages, we shall see that the popular poets of 

 the middle ages, like the peasant boys of the present day, mis- 

 used terms of coloiur as much as Homer ; although the many 

 beautiful paintings that still exist prove that people could see 

 and distinguish colours as well then as now, and that Mr. Glad- 

 stone's theory of a development of the sight from one generation 

 to another is a mere delusion. Certain terms are adopted and 

 handed down traditionally as stock epithets in poetry and techni- 

 cal terms in trades. They are known to be WTong, but they are 

 used from habit. 



Dr. Pole assumes that the colour-blind see black and white as 

 others do ; or, to use his own words (p. 700), that their vision 

 in regard to them is normal. This I dcubt. One of the gentle- 

 men who is so affected tells me that he cannot distinguish snow 

 upon the steps of his front door. Now if white is a combination 

 of all the colom-s of the prism, and we omit red and green, there 

 will be seen a combination of blue and yellow, and these when 

 spun together in a coloiu: top produce stone colour, which I 

 believe to be the white of those who have a dichromal vision. 

 As to black, it is singular that in Anglo-Saxon blac means not 

 "black," but as the Flemish bleek znA Germ, bleich, "pale," a 

 case in point to show the instability of language in these matters. 



To take Homer's terms seriatim : — 



A poet must not be pronounced colcur-blir.d if he compares 

 wine to blood, and calls it red. 



"The king sate in Dumfennline town, drinkin' the hluid-red wine." 



Sir Patrick Sfens, 1. i. 



" And aye she dighted her father's wotmds, His blood ran down like wine : " 



Douglai Tragedy, st. 8. 



Conversely, in slang language to give a man a bloody nose is to 

 "tap his claret." The chair-cushion upon which I am sitting 

 and the cm-tain of my window are of a dark crimson, but in the 

 language of upholstery would be called "maroon." Now 

 marron, from which the word is derived, is a Spanish chestnut, 

 and that is a full brown without any visible red in it. 



In our old English ballads and early romances, and in the 

 German, Flemish, Swedish, and Danish, and in some more 

 modem poems gold is constantly called "red" and "ruddy ; " 

 as in Dr}'den : — 



" A crown of ruddy gold enclosed her brow." 



In a German ballad by Ehrhardt, "Die Nonne," st. 5 : — 



" Was zog er von seinem Finger? Einen Ring vcn Cold so roth." 



In a Flemish ballad of the sixteenth century called " Het 



Soudaen's Dcchterken" in Thijm's " Gedichten," v. i. p. 246 : — 



" Sijn hajT dat blinckt van verwe schocn, 

 KSs waer het roode gouden." 



In an ancient Swedish ballad called " Gingarpilten," Anxidss 

 V, ii. p. 156: — 



" For jag bar intet rSdt t^ld asx. satta mod er. 



And in the corresponding Danish ballad, Dan. Viser iv. p. 122 : 



" Jeg haver ei det rodeguld." 



Milton, " Paradise Lost," bk. ii. 1. 889, calls flame "ruddy 

 flame." 



In old herbals, as in that of Lyte, fol. 1578, p. 162, mari- 

 golds are called " Ruddes." "They be called in Englishe 

 Marygoldes and Ruddes." 



Hair, such as is usually called " red hair," is better named in 

 Greek -Kv^poi, fiery ; for certainly its colour is widely diflerent 

 from blood. "Where in the Old Testament the word "red" is 

 applied to horses and heifers, the Greek_of the Septuagint has 



