TWELFTH MEETING. 19 



TWELFTH MEETING. 



Twelfth Meeting, 2nd February, 1889, the President in the 

 chair. 



Exchanges since last meeting, 46. 



A communication was read from the Audubon Monument 

 Committee, requesting the co-operation of the Institute in 

 obtaining funds for the erection of a monument to John 

 James Audubon. 



Mr. W. A. Sherwocd read a paper on " Colour in Nature." 



He based liis principles on the Newtonian theory, accepting red, 

 yellow, and blue as the primary colours in preference to the theories 

 of Helmholz and Maxwell. Having treated of the influence of the 

 primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries on each other through the prism 

 and in nature, Mr. Sherwood discussed the cause of coloui'-blindness. 

 This he ascribed to the constant use of black and white. The cos- 

 tumes of society are principally black and white, so is the bulk of 

 our writing and nearly the whole of our reading. Mr. Sherwood 

 asked, " Are we in these things acting in accordance with the design 

 of nature 1 " He thought we were not, foi in neglecting colour we 

 were going in direct opposition to the lesson of the book of nature. 

 As to the prevalence of colour-blindness, he cited the published 

 results of the examinations of locomotive engineers, where men 

 fully qualitied in every other res[)ect fail to secure the coveted posts 

 owing to being unable to distinguish the coloured signals. Another 

 illustration was derived from Philadelphia, that city of education 

 and refinement, where one out of every five of the children was 

 found to be colour-blind or compelled to wear glasses. The greatest 

 painters the world has produced flourished in lands where colour is 

 seen on every side. From these resources of nature the artists drew 

 their inspiration, and not from shops of fashion. Colour-blindness is 

 almost unknown in many countries, Japan, Spain, and Italy for ex- 

 ample. Here we have unfortunately the reverse of this. Mr. 

 Sherwood believed this accounted for the preference many persons 



