290 The Evolution of Optics. 



the blind man tapping the pavement with his cane to keep him in safe 

 or known ways. It is said that Laura Bridgman could tell idiots or 

 insane people by the feeling of their hands. I believe it has been dem- 

 onstrated that eyeless bats escape obstacles in their flight by the fact 

 of the increased atmospheric pressure near these objects, which is per- 

 ceived by the hypersensitive interdigital membrane. 



My friend has alluded to that curious structure, the pineal eye, and 

 was doubtless laughing slyly at me when he spoke of this organ being 

 a good target for theory-shooters. I have had my say about it, and, 

 while far from dogmatic, I still suggest that it may have something to 

 do with the perception of the magnetic currents of the earth and with 

 that exquisite, wonderful, beautiful mystery, the homing instinct. 



But I am very proud of another theory I have been guilty of father- 

 ing, and also proud that it has received the approbation of your lect- 

 urer. This theory of mine in regard to the origin and significance of 

 our human color-sense unfortunately appeared years ago in a periodical 

 that in publishing it did in fact bury it, and I firmly believe that it is 

 worthy of the serious consideration of students of science, evolution, 

 and aesthetics. I hope to see it some time resurrected, not so much as 

 a salve of slightly wounded vanity, but because it seems to me to be a 

 great and valuable truth. It is strictly in the line of the teaching of 

 evolution doctrine, harmonizes with archaeology and history, and is 

 adequate. I have great respect for that acute and genial observer, 

 Grant Allen, but his theory of the origin of our color-sense seems to 

 me trivial, inadequate, and unworthy of his genius. It is an explana- 

 tion that explains nothing. I think the mystery of our color-sense is 

 due to the effect of the great orders of natural and historical color- 

 stimuli that have poured into the human eye and brain in the past 

 ages, and with these streams of stimuli have also been deposited in the 

 human mind the influences that now make the symbolism of color. 



Allow me to read a few sentences from my pamphlet : * 



" If we ask what great color-classes of visible objects have most oc- 

 cupied man's eye and mind in all past history, we are certain the an- 

 swer will be something like the following : 



" The first in overwhelming importance is light and fire ; the sec- 

 ond, the world of vegetation ; the third would be blood, as the con- 

 crete representative of war and struggle and superstitious symbol ; 

 the fourth, the sky above with its reflection in the waters of the earth. 

 It would be difficult to name another class, for whatever other colors 

 Nature may have presented to the eye of historic man, they must have 



* The Human Color-Sense considered as the Organic Response to Natural 

 Stimuli. By George M. Gould, A. B. (Reprint from the American Journal of 

 Ophthalmology, September, 1886. Reprinted entire by Dr. S. Dudley Reynolds, 

 in Progress.) 



