For instance, one gentleman when I asked him the name of a
red color patch, said it was sunset color. He then named green and blue
correctly, but when I reverted to the red patch he said green.
On testing further, he proved totally deficient in the color perception
of red, and with a brilliant red patch he matched almost a black shadow.
The diagram shows you the relative perceptions in the spectrum of this
gentleman and myself. There are others who only see three-quarters,
others half, and others a quarter the amount of red that we see, while
some see none. Others see less green and others less violet, but I have
met with no one that can see more than myself or General Festing, whose
color perceptions are almost identical. Hence we have called our curve of
illumination the "normal curve."
We have tested several eminent artists in this manner, and about one half
of the number have been proved to see only three quarters of the amount
of red which we see. It might be thought that this would vitiate their
powers of matching color, but it is not so. They paint what they see; and
although they see less red in a subject, they see the same deficiency in
their pigments; hence they are correct. If totally deficient, the case of
course would be different.
Let us carry our experiments a step further, and see what effect what is
known as a turbid medium has upon the illuminating value of different
parts of the spectrum.
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