Abstract
DURING the last few years, an air of dissatisfaction has become apparent in some quarters over the adequacy of the orthodox colour vision theories to explain the facts. There has even been some dispute about the facts themselves ; but there is at least agreement that since one wave-length can be distinguished from another by its colour, some mechanism of colour discrimination must exist in the retina. All the theories have something in common, in that they all assume that there must be more than one type of receptor in the retina, the types differing, inter alia, in their spectral sensitivity. Given these different receptor types and assuming that they can send messages to the brain which give rise to distinctive colour sensations, then we evidently have the essential ingredients for a colour discrimination mechanism. Current argument is largely concerned with the probable number of these distinctive receptors, ranging from the two anatomically distinct types as suggested by Dr. E. N. Willmer on histological grounds to seven as postulated by Prof. H. Hartridge in his polychromatic theory. Three has previously been the most popular figure—a choice stemming from colour-mixture experiments.
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Colour Vision. Nature 162, 639–640 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162639a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162639a0