The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-05-30
.
THE YNEvER CAN SEE
GHOSTS.
Eyes of People Who arc Color
Blind Not Right for Rec.
Ognizing Spirits.


Science has discovered that color
blind persons never see ghosts. Their
eyes are not made the right way for it..
The scientist who has made this
discovery Is DIR. August hummer,
head of the physical institute of the
great University OF Breslau in Ger
many.
He holds that it is proved hat per-
sons who honestly believe that they
see ghosts are victims of optical i'll
lusions. The effort to see in an almost
dark place creates the effect of very
strange apparilions and hence the sub
jcct, being probably also in a nervous
condition. imagines that he sees
ghosts.
The normal eye has an arrangement
of tiny % d and cones in the retina.
The rods perceive light and the zones
color. When a person with "A normal
eye tries to see in a half dark place
the cones, which are useless, interfere
with the effective action Of the rods
and the confusion creates the effect
oil. apparitions hat come and go and
change their shapes. The color blind
person lacks the cones and his rods
the dark. The color blind person
sees a clear. permanent outline Of
things as long az there is the least
amount OF light present. That means
that he never sees ghosts.
In order to understand his interest
Ing fact or theory 1t is necessary OF
study the intricate structure Of the
eye.
The retina Of the eye consists of
ten layers, of which only the second
layer, containing the rods and cones,
interests us. The function Of the rods
and one Is very different, one from
the other. With the cones we perceive
color, with the rods we perceive light
and focus. The normal eye has about
an equal number Of cones and rods.
In the totally color blind eye, how
ever the cones are absent. In the eye
that is partially color blind there are
some cones. but the set Of nerves
communicating with red and green, or
yellow and blue, to the brain are
atrophied. A person who is red Lind
Is always green blind. both colors ap-
bearing black or gray; the person who
T. blue blind is always yellow bind.
both colors appearing luminously
white Or gray.
LiirG daylight is extremely disagree
:,ble. This is due to the fact thai 10
ing equipped only with a light-seci.,y
apparatus, untempered, and not tom
ell down by the color which is every
where apparent, a sunlit landscape
and we all know how trying snow is
to the yes. However. in the dark the
color blind person, equipped with an
apparatus Very much nor sensitive
Tor glimpsing at feeble light than the
normal eye, has the advantage over
the normal person. A speck of paper
80 tiny as to be u~nperceived in the
dark by the normal will be readily
perceived and correctly located by the
color blind y which is able to
focus in the dark. a feat which the
normal eye can accomplish, be-
cause in the normal eye only cones
the color seeing instruments-are CON
brings into focus all objects appre-
i,ended by vision. while in the color
blind eye this spot is equipped with
rods.
Upon this fact, the inability of the
normal eye TO focus even such objects
in the dark which are sufficiently
luminous and large of area to be seen.
depends the seeing of ghosts and
spooks.
No room is entirely dark. Through
some slit in the shutter. some crack
in the wall a ray of light is certain to
find its way into n room. Failing up
or Il large surface. say a nightgown
hung against the wall. or a petticoat
thrown over a chain. ii attracts the at
tention of tho person who has been
awakened With a shock of some slight
noise, the nibbling of a mouse. or The
t'ip-t.apping of a bat or bird. Sitting
up in bed. with beating heart. the per-
son who has been rudely aroused from
slumher stares at the object which
cnnfronts him. Now another peculi-
arity of the cones is hat they look
at objects in a straight line, while the
rods sec things sideways.
Accustomed as the normal eye is to
focus with the cones at play. it tries to
look straight at the object which it
sees. But we cannot see colors in the
dark. for the sense of color is due to