Salt Lake Times | 1890-06-13 | Page 4 | The Human Eye

, : The Human Eye. Science gives us interesting details about what the human eye has been and what it may become. The Vendas of India, which are the most ancient written writ-ten documents, attest that at times most remote, but still recorded in history, only two colors were known black and red. A. very long time elapsed before tho eye could perceive the color yellow, and a still longer time before green could bo distinguished; and it is remarkable that in the most ancient language the term which designated yellow insensibly passed to the signification of green. The Greeks had, according to the generally received opinion, the perception of colors very highly developed, and yet authors of a more recent date assure us that in the time of Alexander tho 0-reat the Greek painters knew but four colors, viz.: white, black, red and yellow. The words to designate blue and violet were wanting to the Greeks in tho most ancient times of their history, they calling call-ing theso colors gray and black. It is thus the colors in tho rainbow were only distinguished gradually, and the great Aristotle only knew four of them. It is a well known f,act that when the colors of the prism are photographed there remains re-mains outside the limit of tho bine and violet in tho spectrum a distinct imprci)-6ion imprci)-6ion which our eyes do not recognize as a color. Physiologists tell us that it is reasonable to suppose that as the color organ becomes more highly developed, anil even before tho human eye becomes perfect, this outside band will evolve into acolor perfectly discernible. Philadelphia Phila-delphia Record.