Oct. 31, 1878] 



NATURE 



701 



other cases of red, the yellow element may really be 

 there, but may be so overpowered, to the normal eye, by 

 the more vivid red sensation as to be undistinguishable 

 to them, whereas to me, who am free from such inter- 

 ference, it is distinctly visible. 



When blood is in the venous state it alters its colour, 

 losing the yellow and acquiring the blue ; and I believe 

 normal-eyed people admit the existence of the blue 

 element in blood of this kind. This fact will be found 

 of importance in a subsequent place. 



Mr. Gladstone adds : — "The favourite use of the word 

 is for wine ; this is very remarkable, because wine is not 

 of a redness proper, but only approximative, and with a 

 decided infusion of the idea of darkness." He also 

 notices its application to the dark hue of red sandstone 

 rock, and sums up by saying that the word is, in the 

 great majority of instances, associated with dark rather 

 than with bright. This is quite in accordance with the 

 darkening idea of red that pervades the colour-blind 

 theory. 



This word is translated by Liddell and Scott, "a 

 purple red, purple, or crimson." It is used very fre- 

 quently by Homer, and Mr. Gladstone (N. 372, H. 463) 

 finds many difficulties from its being applied to colours 

 materially different from each other. If, however, Ave 

 test his examples by the dichromic perceptions, we shall 

 find all the difficulties disappear. 



The first application is to blood ; and in this case the 

 word would appear to be synonymous with emthros, and 

 is justifiable on either the normal or the colour-blind 

 principle. 



But it is also applied to the colour" of a horse, who was 

 f)hoinix all over except a white spot on his forehead. Mr. 

 Gladstone says that the same epithet sits very ill upon 

 blood and the colour of a horse, whether bay or chestnut ; 

 and no doubt this is true as far as normal-eyed people 

 are concerned, inasmuch as the equine hues contain, I 

 am told, a much larger amount of yellow, being, in 

 accurate colour terms, different varieties of orange- 

 brown. But to the colour-blind these present only their 

 yellow element, and since it is by that same element that 

 arterial blood is recognised, there is no incongruity in the 

 person describing both by the same term. It is curious 

 that, whereas in the case of blood phoinix is used as a 

 synonym for eruthros, in the case of horses it is used as 

 a synonym for xanlhos — a strong presumption in favour 

 of the grouping I have insisted on — the combination 

 being justified through the common element of yellow, 



Phoinix is also used for the back of a dragon or serpent, 

 for jackals, and for the skin of a lion. The lion is, even 

 to normal-eyed people, exactly my colour, yellow brown, 

 and the jackal, though grey or variegated on the back, 

 has much of the same hue about him. I never saw a 

 dragon ; but snakes vary much in colour, and at least half 

 the varieties at the Zoological Gardens convey to me a 

 positive impression of yellow. 



A compound of the word is also applied indirectly, by 

 a comparison with the serpent (H, 476) to the rainbow. 

 For the explanation of this, see the word porphureos 

 farther on. It is also applied to cloaks or mantles, which 

 Mr. Gladstone concludes were not red, as Homer never 

 applies to them the more positive epithet for that colour. 

 As we do not know what hue they were, we cannot reason 

 on this application : it is sufficient for my purpose to 

 assume they may have been some of the many varieties 

 of colour which would give the yellow sensation to the 

 colour blind. 



It is applied to the bows of ships, which are known to 

 have been painted with some kind of red colour. 



If the viord. phoinix, used in Od. vi. 163 to mean the 

 palm tree, has any connection with the colour epithet, 

 as Mr. Gladstone appears to suggest, it furnishes a start- 

 ling addition to the proof of the colour-blind theory. 



The confusion of red and green is incomprehensible to 

 the normal-eyed, but it is one of the best-marked symp- 

 toms of the dichromic malady, Phoinix to me would 

 just as correctly represent the leaves of a palm as it would 

 arterial blood, a chestnut horse, or the skin of a lion. 



It is clear, therefore, that we have only to suppose 

 phoinix to be one of a group of words, all representing 

 the colour-blind sensation of yellow in some of its varied 

 shades and tones, and the whole of these apparently 

 strange and anomalous applications become natural and 

 justifiable. Indeed, Mr. Gladstone (H. 455) notices the 

 anology with xanthos, and remarks that phoinix appears 

 merely to "render other words." 



'PoSdftf. ^ 



Referring to the rose ; rosy. In noticing the use of 

 this word, Mr. Gladstone (N, 376) at once seizes on the 

 remarkable fact that, although the redness of the rose is 

 so obvious, yet " there is no direct point of contact between 

 Homer' s expressions taken from the rose, and eruthros, 

 as they are never applied to the same objects." 



But this is perfectly in accordance with the sensations 

 of the colour-blind. It was pointed out long ago by 

 Dalton, and I took some trouble to explain the fact 

 scientifically in my paper, that " Crimson and pink (rose 

 colour) appear to have no relation to the idea of red 

 derived from vermilion or a soldier' s coat ; " and if the 

 colour-blind person has been in the habit of using eru- 

 thros for the latter it would do violence to his sense of 

 colour to use it also for the rose. This flower, beautiful 

 and positive as its colour is to the world in general, gives 

 to me a very vague impression. Its characteristic of 

 redness being invisible to us, we see in most cases only a 

 pale grey ; if the colour inclines to scarlet this will be 

 tinged with yellow; if very crimson it will be tinged 

 with blue. 



Mr, Gladstone (N. 376, H. 469) is naturally puzzled by 

 the application of the epithet rosy to olive oil, but the 

 above explanation disposes of the difficulty. I have 

 certainly heard my friends describe as "rosy" objects 

 which to my eye would fairly match the pale yellow 

 of oil. 



Kuaj/eof, 



This is a word the explanation of which appears to be 

 involved in much difficulty. It is said to mean the colour 

 of a substance called kiianos, but what this substance 

 was, or even what its colour was, appears open to much 

 doubt. 



The usual translation of the adjective, according to 

 Liddell and Scott, is "dark blue " (whence the chemical 

 term cyanogen), and there is no doubt that, in later Greek, 

 it acquired significations positively identified with this 

 colour. Mr. Gladstone, in 1858(11.496), discussed the 

 meaning of ktianos at much length, and thought it most 

 probably referred to a native blue carbonate of copper, an 

 interpretation in accordance with its subsequent use and 

 description as a colour. If, therefore, this meaning were 

 adopted, the word kuaneos, conveying a distinct idea of 

 blue, could not be included in the same group with 

 xanthos, encthros, and phoinix, which all, as we have 

 seen, belong to the opposite sensation. 



But Mr. Gladstone, after reconsideration, appears, in 

 his later article (N. 378, &c.), to have altered his view. 

 He now considers it " almost certain that kuanos is 

 bronze," and kuaneos, either "made of, or in hue like 

 bronze." This implies the abandonment of the idea of 

 blue as connected with the adjective ; for, so far as I 

 know, there is not a vestige of the blue element in the 

 colour of any combination of copper and tin. In any 

 case, however, there is no doubt that a very dark hue is 

 referred to. 



Now the impression conveyed by bronze to the colour- 

 blind eye is very dark, almost black, but with a tinge of 

 dark yellow-brown ; and keeping this in mind, if we 



