The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1886-10-02
COLOR

ally Supposed.
Why should We look one common faith
find
When one in every score is color blind2
II here on earth they know not red froI
green,
WIN thcy sec better into things unsecnr
Allowing a little for poetical license
DR.. Holmes states very nearly tn
truth when he says that one man out o
every twenty is color blind. The aver
age is usually not quite so high as this
although many scientists give it ever
higher. 1t is safe to say that out o.
every hundred persons, from three ia
five will be found afflicted with that de-
feet of vision called color blindness.
Many persons have a lingering sus-
picion that most of the diseases so
prevalent to-day, but unheard of a few
years ago, W their existence to tho
inventive faculties of physicians who
are supposed to spend as much time in
discovering new ailments as they do in
seeking remedies for the old. There is
nothing people in general are so much
AFRAID OF as a new disease or an old one
with a new name. People attacked
with what Il grandmothers used to
call lung fever and think of little moro
account than a case of measles. have
given up the ghost straightway when
told by the physician that they had
pneumonia. 1t was the name that
killed them more than the disease. So
when scientists first told men that
color blindness was among them, they
received as much gratitude as il they
had awakened a destructive agent.
which before was dormant if not dead.
Where ignorance is bliss, it's folly
to be wise"
And yet color blindness has probably
existed since the time OF Adam. al
though only lately known to science.
10 Prof. Firthlof Holmgren, Professor
OF Physiology in the University of Up
Sweden, may justly be given the
credit OF formulating the correct theory
color blindness and also of devising
the simple tests by which it NAV be dis.
covered. This was about the year
1870. His tests, or a very slight modi-
of them, are now III use whcr-
it is necessary to examine men
With a view of discovering whether :
hey can clearly distinguish colors or I
lot. The King of Sweden carefully !
cad Holmgren's treatise on this sub 7
n was so much impressed with
ne facts therein contained, showing
he danger of having color blind men, !
vho' as pilots or captains of ships or ;
Engineers and conductors on railroads, :
we're obliged to use colored signals, A,
hat he ordered all the railroad en- {
and sailors under his Govern !
aent to be examined by Holmgren's [
ests for color blindness. The value '
I these tests became known in other Z
and now throughout the civil :
ed world it is almost a universal custom S
examine all men for color blindness Z
'ho in their business should be able s
learly TO distinguish %colors,, Railroads :
specially have recognized the import &
nee OF the matter, as many accidents z
re fairly well proved to have happened =
trough the color blindness of en- %
Ioyes. The United States Govern
has also passed a law compelling ss,
| pilots to submit to and pass an ex- Ha
nination for color blindness before nc
ely are givcna certificate qualifying
to act. +,
Color bin persons are divided into att
70 general classes-those totally color
ind or capable of distinguishing only
rkness and light, and those partially
blind or able to distinguish some
Tors and not others. The latter per-
MS may be totally red blind, green
nd. or violet blind. and they NAV
o be defective in one or all.
The totally color blind are very few
nnnthar onA nf o,
their infirmity. The partially color
are more numerous and very 90.
ignorant OF their defect. Color ga
ldness may be hereditary or it NAV
the result OF injury and disease. 1t
very difficult disease to treat, and
EN- congenital is incurable. Cases
% been known where color blindness
been inherited in several families
as many as four generations, and
re is no reason to think that il will w
exist i2,the blood of these families W
all timefo come Itdoes not attack
~ member of the family, but like
ny other hereditary diseases, is I'M
ain in its time of reappearing.
ONE very curious mistakes have
made by the color blind. An
,itect had to release an apprentice
consequence OF finding him copy a All Of
house in bluish-grcen paint, the
rose color, and roses, blue.
tradesman had a hired boy who
to a customer pink and pale W,f,
p paper as good matches, and who Hdtl
getting his master in trouble BY
ing books in wrong colors.
any ladies report that when work and $
with colored worsteds they must round
the skeins marked. -
post-offce clerk in Prussia was =
d to, be constantly in trouble with
stamps. Sometimes he had more
cy than the stamps sold for were ner
h, at other times less. 1t was Mt
tn discovered that he could not tell
from green.
sea captain who used to work en-
lery when time lay heavy on his
$ lost all appreciation for colors
'ertasking his eyes and was after ID
S unable to distinguish red worsted rnr,s
green. tsTes,e