144 



Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



side were nearly alike ; the former was rather brown, the latter a drab. 

 Time, I found, made a difference : slate color and red were placed side by 

 side ; on first looking at them Captain C. thought them different shades 

 of the same color, but after looking at them for half a minute even this 

 difference of shade disappeared. By the production of subjective effects, 

 such as looking long at an object through a colored glass, and then re- 

 moving the latter, his judgment of colors could also be made to vary in 

 a slight degree. 



My second examination of Captain C. took place in the theatre of the 

 Royal Institution ; and on the day he called upon me I happened to be 

 using the electric light, rendered continuous by Duboscq's lamp. A por- 

 tion of the light was permitted to pass through a bright green glass and 

 was received upon a screen ; no change of color was perceived : the space 

 on which the green light fell was merely a little less intensely illuminated 

 than the remaining portion of the screen. Lycopodium was shaken upon 

 glass : the electric light looked at through such a glass gives, as is known, 

 a series of brilliantly colored rings : to Captain C, however, no color was 

 manifest, merely light and obscure rings following each other in succes- 

 sion. A spectrum was cast upon the screen in which all the prismatic 

 colors shone vividly ; to Captain C. only two colors were manifest, namely, 

 blue and whitish-yellow. The outline of the spectrum was the same to 

 him as to me ; all that gave me light gave him light also ; but in his 

 case, the red, orange, and green were so modified as to produce the uni- 

 form impression of whitish-yellow. In some cases of color blindness, 

 where the sufferer confounds red with green, it is difficult to say whether 

 he takes the red for a green or the green for a red. In the present case 

 neither of these expresses the fact ; neither red nor green is seen, but 

 both of them are reduced to a color different from either. 



Captain C. assured me, that, previous to the circumstance related at 

 the commencement, he was a good judge of colors, so that in pronounc- 

 ing upon any color he has an aid from memory not usually possessed by 

 the color blind. Indeed I had myself an opportunity of reviving his im- 

 pression of red. A glass of this color was placed before his eyes while 

 he stood close to the electric lamp : on establishing the light, he at once 

 exclaimed, " that is red !" He appeared greatly delighted to renew his 

 acquaintance with this color, and declared that he had not seen it for 

 several years. The glass was then held near the light while he went to 

 a distance, but in this case no color was manifest ; neither was any color 

 seen when a gas-lamp was regarded through the same glass. The intense 

 action due to proximity to the electric light appeared necessary to pro- 

 duce the effect. " You gave the eye a dram," observed a gentleman to 

 whom I described the case : the figure appears to be a correct one. Cap- 

 tain C.'s interest in this experiment was increased by the fact, that the 

 Portland light, which he has occasion to observe, has been recently 

 changed from green to red, but he has not been able to recognize this 

 change. The fare in the fore-cabin of a vessel of his own which he now 

 commands happens to be sixpence, and he is often reminded by the pas- 

 sengers that he has not returned their change. The reason is, that he 

 confounds a sixpence with a half-sovereign, both being to him of the same 

 color. A short time ago he gave a sovereign to a waterman, believing it 

 to be a shilling. 



