83 
coloured papers. For the same purpose about thirty-five 
copies of the complete Table of Logarithms were printed 
on thick drawing paper of various tints.” Where is this 
wonderful and unique book now ? Yellow was the colour of 
paper that had the preference, and the Table of Logarithms 
was printed for the public in black ink and on a deep shade 
of yellow paper. There is a review of the “ Specimens ” in 
Brewster’s “ Edinburgh Journal of Science,” vol. vi. (1832), 
p. 144. The writer, probably Brewster, is in favour of the 
blackest ink upon the whitest paper. “ The ground of 
this conclusion is that by looking through slightly coloured 
media we may give to the white paper any tint we desire 
without depositing a poison at the root of the ink.” I fancy 
that those who can do without will be unwilling to read 
with coloured spectacles. 
Beturing from this digression it may be remarked that 
the speculations of Geiger are by no means universally 
accepted, and less so now than when they were first broached. 
Dr. Krause, an earnest follower of Darwin, opposes them ; 
and Sir J ohn Lubbock doubts. The matter has also been 
investigated by Dr. Paul von Seydewitz, of New Orleans, 
who also rejects the theory that the ancients were colour 
blind. Mr. Grant Allen, whilst holding that the colour-sense 
has been developed from the partiality of man’s frugivorous 
ancestors for bright coloured fruit, is also a decided opponent 
of the idea that this has been done within the historic 
period. 
In our own days the colour vocabulary is not used with 
exactness. Why, then, should we suppose that the Greeks 
were colour-blind because Homer appears to use the same 
name for red, purple, and grey ? An exact scientific pre- 
cision is not to be expected in the popular use of such terms. 
The very basis, however, of Geiger’s theory is the exact 
conformity of colour sense and colour terminology, and 
when we see that this is notably absent in the present day 
