146 REVIEWS — EESEAECHES OX COLOUB-BLES-DSESS. 



of the East. He cannot but trace the hand of Providence in adapting the wants 

 and produce of a country to each other, — whether he seeks for it in the contribu- 

 tions from the ice-bound shores of Scandinavia or the sunny lands of southern 

 latitudes. He feels, after all, how poor are man's efforts, and how small is h'u 

 success, when — with all the powers of advanced civilization, the matured intellect? 

 and the developed skill -he cannot rival the beauty and the richness of those pro- 

 ductions which Nature has bestowed on lands over which her sway is still 

 undisturbed. His intellect may originate, — his skill may apply, — science and art 

 may lend means for the adaptation of Nature's gifts to his daily need, but his own 

 finitenesa must ever come home to his mind with the great truth that — though aa 

 Paul he may plant, and as Apollos may water, — it is God that giveth the increase." 



We too, in Canada, have many great and wise lessons to learn 



from the part we have played in these palaces of Industry reared 



successively in the two chief capitals of Europe and of the world. 



We have much to be justly proud of in the appearance we have made ; 



hut our experience will have been to little purpose, if we do not also 



learn from it how much we have yet to accomplish in every way, to 



place us on an intellectual as well as an industrial equality with these. 



the foremost among the nations of the world. 



G.B. 



Researches on Colour-blindness, with a Supplement on the Danger at- 

 tending the present system of Railway and Marine Coloured Signals. 

 By George Wilson, M. D., F.E.S.E., Eegius Professor of Tech- 

 nology in the University of Edinburgh, and Director of the In- 

 dustrial Museum of Scotland. Edinburgh: Sutherland and 

 Knox. 1855. 



There are few persons, we imagine, who would not be startled if 

 their Iriend standing by them, looking at the same object, and en- 

 dowed with eyes to all appearance as acute of vision as their own, 

 were to declare that the rainbow was only a white circle, that the 

 varied hues of a sunset were but increasing shades of darkness, or 

 that the gorgeous coloring of a picture by Titian was undistinguish- 

 able from the chiaro obscuro of a mezzotint ; yet, reflection may con- 

 vince us that such an incident is quite within the limits of possibility, 

 since the impression of colour conveyed to the mind by some func- 

 tion of the apparatus of vision must depend on the organization of 

 that apparatus, which will vary in different individuals ; and this va- 

 riation may in some cases be exalted into so wide a difference from 

 the normal type as to involve the confusion of colours which are dis- 

 tinct to ordinary eyes, or even, as in the case suggested, the oblitera- 

 tion of all. Though this extreme case is very rare, we have abun- 



