Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 February 1915 — AS TO “COLOR BLINDNESS” [ARTICLE]

AS TO “COLOR BLINDNESS”

Many Btrange Things Connected With Faulty Vieion Which Hae Been 8o Designated. When a woman is able to match a sample of material from memory, she is said to have a good eye for color. It is -a very convenient gift, for if the possessor wants to select, say wall paper to match a rug;, or ribbon to match her frock, she does not find it necessary to take time to find a piece of the original material to carry with her, which piece, by the way, is often mislaid when the time comes to use it. Children should be trained to recognize colors and the difference in colors, an important point in both the Montessori and ordinary kindergarten systems. But it is found that not all Children or grown-ups either can define difference in colors, or indeed even recognize a color when they do see it. When this fault in vision is so pronounced as not to yield to training it is known as “color-blindnesp.” The strange thing about this faulty vision is that it has been found to be like extra fingers and toes, an inherited trait, but unlike most hereditary diseases it is transmitted only froth the mother's side. Thus, while a son may have inherited the trait from his mother, he would not transmit it to his own children, although his sister, If she has a child, will- pass it on to her offspring. c . ( ... If the trait has been missing through more than two generations, it rarely crops out again, but a daughter of a color-blind mother can produce children with the trait even though she herself has escaped. This knowledge and the prevalence of "color-blindness” .have led to a wise rule for eye-examination in engaging engineers and others to whom exact eyesight is essential.