Color Blindness: An Evolutionary Approach.

Abstract

The first half of this treatise on color vision is an up-to-date review of the data and theories of color vision, abnormalities, research, and clinical methods of testing, diagnosis, and classification. Of particular interest is the discussion of the Young-Helmholtz trichromatic, the Hering opponent-color, and the zone theories of color perception in the light of the in vivo studies by Wald, Rushton, and others. But the author's interest in color vision appears to be much broader. He is interested in the bare facts not so much for themselves as for the light they throw on questions of physical and cultural anthropology. Accordingly, about half the book is given over to interesting (admittedly speculative) matters as relationship of light energy, life, and evolution; the place of carotenoids in living things, the variations in spectral sensitivity among deep-sea, shallow water, and fresh-water fishes; the place of the x-chromosome in evolution; the dynamic