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Photochemistry of Colour Vision

Abstract

SOME years ago1, we prepared ‘artificial retinse’ by imbedding in thin gelatin films the pigments extracted from frog retinae. When such films were exposed to coloured light, they exhibited a typical phenomenon called ‘colour selectivity’, and it appeared probable that a similar process might account for colour vision in the living eye. As a result of colour selectivity, a preferential increase in transparency is developed for the wave-length of the exciting light, so that there is a minimum for this wave-length in a curve showing extinction plotted against wavelength. The effects are extremely small, and can be detected only by a special microphotometric device. This is based on the production of photodichroism in light-sensitive solid films which have been exposed to polarized light2.

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References

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  2. Weigert, F., Ann. Phys., (4), 63, 689 (1920).

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WEIGERT, F., MORTON, J. Photochemistry of Colour Vision. Nature 143, 989–990 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143989a0

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