386 



Report of the Committee on Colour- Vision. 



necessary in our examination. It may be regarded as an 

 advantage of our method that it has at command a great variety 

 of resources. We have by no means mentioned all; and yet 

 many who have only read this description will probably reproach 

 us with having devoted ourselves too much to details which 

 seem to them puerile. But we believe that those who have 

 examined the chromatic sense of a great number of persons, and 

 acquired thereby considerable experience, will think differently. 



" We are convinced that time is saved by such artifices, and a 

 more certain result obtained ; whilst a practised surgeon, who 

 has become to a certain degree a virtuoso, will accomplish his 

 object quicker and surer by such artifices than one who neglects 

 them. J&ecent experience fully confirms this. All those who 

 have familiarised themselves with my method, and have had 

 experience with colour-blindness, and of whose competence there 

 can be no doubt, report, without exception, that it is to be fully 

 depended on — the most practical and the best. 



" An advantage of the method was shown to be that those 

 who were to be examined could be present and see each individual 

 tested, without this interfering in the least with the certainty of 

 the result. The individual test is even hastened thereby. The 

 colour-blind, and even the normal-eyed who are not familiar with 

 colours, are generally rather shy about being tested, in whatever 

 way it is done. As the method, however, is carried out, they have 

 more confidence. The majority are even amused. The old adage 

 holds true here, that it is easier to find fault than to do it 

 yourself. The surgeon, who watches not only the examined, 

 but also those around, can often see from their faces how closely 

 the latter observe the person being tested when he takes out the 

 wrong colours, as also when he neglects the right ones under 

 his eye. This gives those looking on confidence and assurance, 

 till their turn comes, when they appear as uncertain as before 

 they were confident. There is something attractive in the 

 process, stimulating the interest, and hence is not without benefit. 



" From this we see that our judgment of a person's colour- 

 sense is made, not onl y by the material result of the examination — 

 the character of the wools selected — but often also by the way 

 the examined acts during the test. We should mention a very 

 common manner of persons on trial, which, in many cases, is of 

 great value in diagnosis. Often, in searching for the right colour, 

 they suddenly seize a skein to lay it with the sample ; but then 

 notice it does not correspond, and put it back in the heap. This 

 is very characteristic ; and, if an examiner has often seen it, he 

 can readily recognise and be assured that it is an expression 

 of difficulty in distinguishing the differences in the colours. We 

 frequently see this in the first test, with shades of greenish-blue 

 and bluish-green. Here it means nothing important ; but it is quite 

 the reverse, however, when it concerns the grey or one of the 

 confusion-colours (1-5). Uncertainty and hesitation as to these 

 colours, which the colour-blind do not distinguish from the test 



