the retina, but they are not received by a spontaneous, direct action of that organ. The white surface of the paper is reflected, but the letters are detected only by a discriminative effort of the optic nerves. This effort annoys the nerves, and, when long continued, exhausts their susceptibility. The human eye can not long sustain the broad glare of a white surface without injury. The author of "Spanish Vistas," in "Harper's Magazine," says of Cartagena that "blind people seem to be numerous there, a fact which may be owing to the excessive dazzle of the sunlight and the absence of verdure." Mr. Seward, in his tour around the world, observed that "in Egypt ophthalmia is universal," attributing it to the same "excessive dazzle" of the wide areas of white sand; and the British soldiers, in the late campaign in that country, exhibited symptoms of the same disease. In the Smithsonian Report for 1877 it is stated, in a paper on "Color-Blindness," that "M. Chevreul has produced 14,420 distinguishable tints of the elementary colors, from which the paper-manufacturers could select colors more agreeable to the eye than the dazzling white, so weakening and lacerating to the nerves of that delicate organ." We know, too, that the Esquimaux, wandering over their snowy plains, and the Arabs, roving over their sandy deserts, are afflicted with inflammation of the eyes, which often results in blindness. I once rode for hours over a Western snow-covered prairie, and experienced the wearisome and irritating glare; and, had my ride been continued longer, I might have found myself in the condition of the gentleman described in the "Cheyenne (Wyoming Territory) Leader," of April 17th ult., as follows: "Ex-Governor John W. Hoyt was brought home in yesterday's coach from the north suffering from snow-blindness. He left Cheyenne on Thursday, and on Friday traveled all day over the snow while the sun shone brightly upon it. The Governor suffered greatly from pain in the eyes in the evening, and at length became totally blind. He has not been able to use his eye-sight since. His physician, Dr. Gray, expresses the belief that the Governor will recover his sight, but must be kept in a dark room for a week." Lieutenant Danenhower, who lost the use of one of his eyes from the reflection of light from ice and snow in the Arctic Expedition of 1881, is a notable illustration of this subject.
From all these authorities and instances it does not seem unreasonable to substitute some other than the universal color of our paper. What color shall it be? Nature and science declare that it should be green. Green grass covers the ground, and green leaves are our canopy, and no color is so grateful to the eye. Plutarch said, in Demosthenes, "it is universally acknowledged that we are not to abandon the unhappy to their sorrows, but to endeavor to console them by rational discourses, or by turning their attention to more agreeable objects—in the same manner as we desire those who have weak eyes to turn them from bright or dazzling colors to green or to others of a softer kind."
