Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-06-03
THEY NEVER CAN SEE GHOSTS.
Eyes of People Who Are Color Blind
Not Right for Recognizing Spirits

Science has discovered that color
blind persons never see ghosts. Their
eyes are not made the right way for
il.
The scientist who has made this
discovery is DR.. August Lummef
head of the Physical Institute of the
great University of Breslau in Ger
many.
He holds that 1t is proved that per-
sons who honestly believe that they
see ghosts are victims of optical iIltt-
sions. The effort to see in an almost
dark place creates the effect of very
strange apparitions and hence the
subject, being probably also in "a
nervous condition, imagines that he
sees ghosts.
The normal eye has an arrange
ment of tiny rods and cones in the
retina. The rods perceive light and
the cones color. When Il person with
a normal eye tries to see in half
dark place the cones, which are use
less, interfere with the effective ac-
ton of the rods and the confusion
creates the effect of appartionS that
come and go and change their shapes
The color blind person lacks the cones
and his rods act with extraordinary
efficiency in the dark. The color
blind person sees a clear, permanent
outline of things as long as there is
the least amount of light present.
That means that he never sees ghosts.
In order to understand this inter
esting fact or theory il is necessary
to study the intricate structure of the
eye.
The retina of the eye consists of
ten layers, of which only the second
interests us The function of the rods
and cones 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, however,
| the cones are absent. In the eye that
| Is partially color blind there are some
cones, but the set of nerves commune
| eating with red and green, or yellow
| and blue, to the brain are atrophied
| 4 person who is red blind IL always
green blind, both colors appearing
black or gray; the person who is blue
| blind is always yellow blind, both col
| ers appearing luminously white OF
| gray.
| To the person who is totally color
| blind daylight is extremely disagree
| able. This is due 10 the fact that being
| equipped only with light-seeing ap-
! paratus, untempered, and not TONED
| down by the color which is everywhere
| apparent, Il sunlit landscape makes tn,
| impression of snowclad landscape
| and we all know how trying snow is t.
| the eyes. However, in the dark th'
| color blind person, equipped with ~
| apparatus very much more sensitive
| for slimpsing at feeble light than th'
| normal eye. has the advantage over thu
| normal person. 4 speek of paper 81
| tiny as to he unpereeived in the darl
| by the normal eye will be readily per
| ceived and correctly located by the col
| or blind eye, which is able to focus IL
| the dark, a feat which the normal ey
/ can never accomplish, because in tn
| normal eye only cones-the color seeing
| instruments-are contained in tina
! spot of the eye which brings into focu
| all objects apprehended by vision
| while in the color blind eye this spot i
/ equipped with rods.
/ Uron this fact the inability of TIN
| normal eye to focus even such objects
| in the dark which are sufficiently luin
| nous and large of area to be seen, de
| ponds the seeing of CHEST and spooks
4 No room is entirely dark. Through
some slit in the shutter. some crack il