BROKEN AND SHADED LIGHT 41 



and bushes. Dr. Weir Mitchell has noted 

 yachts at sea sailing in the track of a fiery red 

 sun with the shadowed white sails showing "a 

 vivid green;"* and I have seen more than 

 once the white sails of yachts crossing a yellow 

 sunset when the change to blue in the sails was 

 strongly marked blue being the complement- 

 ary color of yellow as green is of red. Un- 

 doubtedly the yellow sky at sunset is measur- 

 ably responsible for the blues and purples of 

 the mountains below it, and the more intense 

 the yellow the stronger the blue-purple. If the 

 sunset shows greenish-yellow, the mountain 

 shadows will be violet ; if orange, the shadows 

 will be cyan-blue ; and so on throughout the 

 gamut each color will disclose its opposite in 

 shadow. 



This is scientific theory, and it has been de- 

 monstrated and proved true of nature when 

 all the conditions are just right. The only 

 trouble is the conditions in nature are seldom 

 just right. The complementary coloring in 

 the shadow is apparent only on certain days, 

 and under certain lights, atmospheres, and 

 temperatures. It is an error to suppose that a 

 color is always casting its complementary hut 



* Doctor and Patient, page 176. 



