June 2, 1893.J 



SCIENCE. 



297 



— as. for instance, in the case of Bacon — attract one's attention. 

 But space permits of no extended indication of these points. 



Next to the shortening of the sentence, a decrease in predica- 

 tion is a striking fact in the evolution of the prose-style. While 

 in earlier writers the per cent of simple sentences is small, it 

 rises rythmically to a high average in modern stylists. The 

 following examples will illu,=trate : — 



single piooeer work. The study of literature — after the usual 

 objection and objurgation from those not yet in sympathy with 

 the unifying power of the scientific method — promises to take its 

 place not as an art, but as a science of the biological series. Too 

 much praise can hardly be laid upon the writer of this work 

 which so definitely hands literary criticism over into the hands 

 of scientifically-minded men. 



The laws of shortening and simplifying the English prose- 

 sentence may be derived from comparative morphological studies 

 in styles, or better by the assistance of ontogenetic or embryo- 

 logical work. The latter method is called in by Dr. Sherman in 

 the series of comparisons between the style of speech of the child 

 and the literary styles in the phylogenetio series. The stages in 

 either case are found to be (a) monosyllabic exclamation, (b) 

 predication, (c) co-ordination of predications, (d) sub-ordination 

 of some predications to others, (e) suppression of less important 

 predications. Examples from the early lispings of childhood are 

 brought side by side with others selected from the field of Eng- 

 lish prose and a statistical enquiry, most subtle and ingenious, is 

 instituted into the various percentages of illative, temporal, 

 causal interior and exterior conjunctions in different writers. 

 The result, simple as it seems when once fairly grasped , is no 

 less splendid an achievement of the biological method in its new 

 application. There is in the child, as it learns to talk, a recapitu- 

 lation of the phases through which the English writers of prose 

 have passed in their development of the modern style. The 

 record of the pateontological series tallies with that of 

 the embryological and one can explain the changes from the 

 earlier styles to the later by the same laws that one sees 

 at work in the child as he learns the art of speaking and of 

 writing. 



In the discussion of poetry the same scientific method may be 

 used, and its employment is indicated, but somewhat less fully, 

 by Dr. Sherman. In the portion of the " Analytics of Litera- 

 ture," which is particularly devoted to the poetic side of Eng- 

 lish, the most notable discovery is doubtless the law of intensifica- 

 tion, through which, when associations were few, the poetic idea 

 demanded a whole sentence for its vehicle, as in Chaucer; but as 

 the association value of words increases the poetic idea can 

 be carried by clauses, as in Shakespeare, by phrases as in Keats or 

 Shelley, and, finally, by single words, as excellently illustrated 

 in Browning. This discovery is made the basis of a scientific 

 analysis of different poetic styles and the results obtained while 

 new are of the deepest value. Things before mysterious and the 

 subjects of vatic utterance by the various critics, become sud- 

 denly transferable to the solid ground of experiment and calcula- 

 tion. Poetry is no longer presented to one as something to be in- 

 tuitionally appreciated but as an object of experience and of 

 analysis after the ordinary methods. 



On the whole, it is not possible to commend too highly this 

 new departure in a field which has long lain in darkness, await- 

 ing the light of science to make its laws and phenomena gener- 

 ally apparent. The adoption of such clear-cut, substantial, ex- 

 perimental foundation in rhetorical courses in colleges and 

 schools cannot but be of the highest utility. It is evident, fur- 

 thermore, that a vast untried territory is now discovered to those 

 who wish to engage in useful research. It becomes apparent how 

 halting and poor is former critical method when one notes what 

 tremendous conquests of unknown facts are possible through this 



IN REGARD TO COLOR-BLINDNESS AMONG INDIANS. 



BY LUCIEN I. BLAKE AND W. S. FRANKLIN, PHYSICAL LABOHATORY, 

 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCE, KAN. 



The fact that blindness to certain colors exists among civil- 

 ized people, is well established ; also the percentage of cases to be 

 found among males has been determined with considerable 

 probability for the races of Europe and America. There has 

 been much diversity in methods of testing, and the results of 

 many reported determinations might well be called in question. 

 Still, it is probably not far from the truth that four out of every 

 hundred males are more or less deficient in color-sense. Of fe- 

 males, there have been reported (B. J. Jeffries, M.D., ' Color- 

 Blindness," p. 85) as examined in Europe and America, 39,828. 

 and of these only 60 were color-blind, or two-tenths per cent. Of 

 both males and females, 156,732 have been tested, and of these 

 5,417, or 3.52 per cent, were color-blind. These statistical facts have 

 naturally excited interest and discussion. If so large a number 

 as four out of every hundred are unable to distinguish colors, 

 there arises, of course, a practical question, important to the 

 railroads, marine, etc. 



The gravity of this fact is already recognized more or less in all 

 countries, by the test-examinations for color-blindness among 

 employes. But there is in these statistics also much of interest 

 to scientists. 



Most cases of color-blindness are found to be congenital and 

 are incurable. Many have been produced by disease, some by 

 violent concu.«sions in accidents, and some by excessive use of 

 tobacco and alcohol. Temporary blindness to violet may be in- 

 duced by santonine. From these facts several interesting ques- 

 tions have suggested themselves to us. If color-blindness fol- 

 lows the laws of heredity, is it on the increase or decrease? 

 Further, is it a product of civilization ? The first of these queries 

 can be answered only by statistical data extending over long 

 periods of time. The second naturally suggests a comparison: 

 first, of the color-sense of civilized nations among themselves; 

 and second, of civilized with uncivilized peoples. 



Of tests on native tribes, we can find but two recorded — those 

 of Dr. Favre on some tribes in Algiers, and those of Dr. Fox on 

 150 American Indians, but where we do not know. 



First, for the comparison of civilized tribes among themselves 

 we have calculated the following percentages from tables re- 

 ported by Dr. Jeffries : — 



Per Cent Color- 

 Blind. 

 3.79 

 3.74 

 4.13 

 1.43 

 5.00 

 4.88 

 8.7S 

 5.86 

 4.13 

 3.30 

 2.32 

 3.75 

 3.64 



No. Examined. 

 5,250 

 5.840 

 8,106 

 2,300 

 1,200 

 205 

 32,504 

 3,034 

 6,344 

 12,830 

 2,065 

 16,431 

 44,844 

 Average per cent, 3.76. 

 No great reliance can be placed upon these results. The num- 

 bers examined are too small, the methods of testing not uniform 

 or equally reliable. However, the probabilities of error are 

 almost equally distributed, so that the conclusion is fairly well 



Countries. 



Austria 



Denmark 



Belgium 



Holland 



Finland 



Norway 



Sweden 



Switzerland 



Germany 



Russia 



Italy 



England 



United States 



