ON ACCIDENTAL OR SUBJECTIVE COLORS. 247 



me neither just nor natural. Blue, to be sure, might be permitted to replace the 

 word violet, for these two colors appear to me closely analogous, while red and 

 violet bear no relation to one another. When pursuing my scientific studies I 

 gave particular attention to optics. The theory of light and of colors was 

 familiar to me before I had discovered the defect of my vision, a defect which I 

 had always attributed to the confusion prevailing in the terminology of colors. 

 In the course of the year 1790 I occupied myself with botany, and this study 

 involved a particular notice of colors. White, yellow, or green I called with- 

 out hesitation by its proper name; while for me there was little difference be- 

 tween purple, violet, and crimson. I would often ask my friends which color 

 was blue and which violet; but the inquiry was taken for a pleasantry and an- 

 swered slightingly. Meanwhile the peculiarity of my vision was not clearly 

 known to myself till the autumn of 1792. I was one day examining the flower 

 of the geranium zonule by the light of a candle. This flower, which by day- 

 light appears to me blue, and which is, in ffict, violet, now seemed entirely 

 changed. The supposed blue color had wholly disappeared and given place to 

 red, which is for me the exact opposite of blue. I doubted not that this change 

 occurred to every one, and asked some of my friends if it were so. Judge of 

 my surprise when I learned that ng one, except my brother, saw as I did. This 

 observation taught me that my vision, as well as my brother's, differed from 

 that of the rest of the world, and that artificial light produced to us changes of 

 color which were not perceived by other persons. 



" Two years passed before I applied myself to serious inquiry on the subject; 

 at the end of which time I availed myself of the services of a friend profoundly 

 skilled in the theory of colors, their distinctions, and constitution. I am near- 

 sighted, and the eye- glasses which suit me best are of five-inch focus. I see 

 Avell at a convenient distance ; but when the weather is obscure or too bright I 

 distinguish with difficulty. It was on the solar spectrum that I commenced my 

 observations; six colors are there universally recos'nized : red, orange, yellow, 

 green, blue, and purple, which last Newton divided into two others, indigo and 

 violet. As for myself, I recognize in the spectrum but two, or at most perhaps 

 three colors — the yellow, the blue, and the purple. My yellow comprises the 

 red, orange, yellow, and green of all the world ; my blue is so confounded with 

 the purple that I hardly discern them to be other than one and the same color. 

 The part of the spectrum which is called red seems to me scarcely anything 

 else but a shadow or an absence of light. The yellow, orange, and green are, 

 for me, the same color with different degrees of intensity. The point of the 

 spectrum at which the green touches the blue presents to me a highly siriking 

 contrast and a most decided difference. Tiie distinction of blue and purple -is 

 far from being so marked ; for the purple, in my estimate, is but a mixture of 

 blue and shadow. When I look at the flame of a candle through a prism, nearly 

 the same phenomena present themselves ; yet the red seems more lively than 

 that of the solar spectrum. The following is a statement of the manner in which 

 each color is presented to me, whether by solar or by artificial light : 



" Red : By daylight I comprise under this name crimson, scarlet, red, and 

 violet. Crimson resembles blue with which has been mingled a shade of deep 

 brown, its varieties not being so different as to be distinguishable. This color 

 appears to me grave m the presence of bright colors. Blue cloth and crimson 

 offer me no decided difference. Violet is composed of red and blue, but it pro- 

 duces no other impression on me than that of a pale and faint blue ; if placed 

 beside bright blue it seems the same color, only somewhat tarnished. I regard 

 as blue the rose, the violet, the common clover, and several kinds of geranium. 

 A spot of common ink on white paper is, for me, of the same color wiih the 

 cheek of a person glowing with health. The red and scarlet form an entirely 

 different class from the preceding colors ; I perceive in them not the least trace 

 ol blue ; the scarlet is rather brighter than the red. Blood, in my view, has a 



