the sense of colour has been recently acquired by man. (416/1. See
"Kosmos," June 1877, page 264, a review of Dr. Hugo Magnus' "Die
Geschichtliche Entwickelung des Farbensinnes," 1877. The first part is
chiefly an account of the author's views; Dr. Krause's argument begins at
page 269. The interest felt by Mr. Darwin is recorded by the numerous
pencil-marks on the margin of his copy.) The following observation bears
on this subject.

I attended carefully to the mental development of my young children, and
with two, or as I believe three of them, soon after they had come to the
age when they knew the names of all common objects, I was startled by
observing that they seemed quite incapable of affixing the right names to
the colours in coloured engravings, although I tried repeatedly to teach
them. I distinctly remember declaring that they were colour-blind, but
this afterwards proved a groundless fear.

On communicating this fact to another person he told me that he had
observed a nearly similar case. Therefore the difficulty which young
children experience either in distinguishing, or more probably in naming
colours, seems to deserve further investigation. I will add that it
formerly appeared to me that the gustatory sense, at least in the case of
my own infants, and very young children, differed from that of grown-up
persons. This was shown by their not disliking rhubarb mixed with a little
sugar and milk, which is to us abominably nauseous; and in their strong
taste for the sourest and most austere fruits, such as unripe gooseberries
and crabapples.


(PLATE: G.J. ROMANES, 1891. Elliott & Fry, photo. Walker and Cockerell,
ph. sc.)