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PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. 231
between Newton s theory of colours and my own, which is
simply that his is false, and mine true : a discovery which
could not fail to mortify my contemporaries. Wherefore,
according to ancient custom, all serious examination into
the question is wisely postponed for these few years. Pro
fessor Rosas knew no such policy as this and, as the matter
was not alluded to anywhere, thought himself entitled, like
the Danish Academician, to claim it as lawful prey (de bonne
prise) . Evidently North and South German honesty had
not yet come to a satisfactory understanding. Moreover
the whole contents of 538, 539 and 540 in Professor
Rosas book are taken from my pamphlet, nay even in
great part copied word for word from my 13. Still
once, where he stands in need of a voucher for a fact,
he finds himself obliged to refer to my treatise : that is,
in his 531 ; and it is most amusing to see the way in
which he even brings in the numerical fractions used by
me, as a result of my theory, to express all colours. It had
probably occurred to him, that appropriating them quite
sans fa^on might be a delicate matter, so he says, p. 308:
"
If we wished to express in numbers the first-mentioned
relation in which colours stand to white, assuming white to
be = 1, the following scale of proportion might by the way
be adopted (as has already been done by Schopenhauer) :
yellow = J blue = i
orange = -|
violet = J
red = i black =
green
= ~
Now I should like to know how anyone could do this by
the way, without having first thought out my whole colour-
theory, to which alone these numbers refer, and apart
from which they are mere abstract numbers without
meaning; above all, how anyone could do it who, like
Professor Eosas, professes to be a follower of Newton s