Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/384

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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

are for the red with blue combination and the blue with violet, there being five men to one woman choosing the former, and three men to one woman choosing the latter; while the most marked feminine preferences are for the lighter red with lighter green, red with green, and red with lighter green, there being nearly four times as many women as men choosing the former, twice as many the second, and two and a half times as many the last of these three. We observe in these differences the reappearance of the masculine preference for blue and its related colors, and the feminine preference for red, and also the feminine preference for the lighter colors. The liking for combinations of red with green in their various shades seems also a particularly feminine fondness.^[1]

In reviewing these results of this popular census of color preferences, it is apparent that while in some directions the conclusions seem clear, suggestive, and interesting, in others their interpretation and value are at present doubtful or defective. It must, however, be borne in mind that these returns have been gathered among the general public and by only one of several methods; their full significance can hardly appear before special studies shall have been made of the influences upon color preferences of age and nationality, of education and special artistic endowment, of conventionality and association, and of the many other factors that contribute to the complexity of even the simplest æsthetic judgments. For the present, the results are presented as merely an initial contribution to the statistical study of the popular æsthetics of color.

An interesting case of mimicry is described by Mr. Charles A. Witchell as shown in his brother's Dandie Dinmont terrier, which was in the company of a fine mastiff for a short time when young. "The little dog was somewhat awed by the great beast, which could easily have made a meal of him; but he was evidently very proud to be allowed to accompany her for a ramble in the country." In a short time he began to try to reproduce her baying, which was much lower in pitch than his bark, and made very great efforts to accomplish it, which he finally did very successfully. "He raised his head and uttered a great bark, about an octave in pitch below his usual tone. All his breath was exhausted by the effort, and he immediately coughed, as though his larynx had been strained." Mr. Mitchell also observes that when one of the fish in his aquarium gaped, any other one near would be tolerably certain to gape soon afterward.

↑ It is possible to calculate for the men and women separately the tendency to select given colors in the color combinations (irrespective of the colors with which the given color may be combined). Such a comparison yields the conclusion that the colors relatively better represented in the combinations of color than in the single colors are, for the men, blue and violet; and for the women, lighter red, lighter yellow, and green.

[1] It is possible to calculate for the men and women separately the tendency to select given colors in the color combinations (irrespective of the colors with which the given color may be combined). Such a comparison yields the conclusion that the colors relatively better represented in the combinations of color than in the single colors are, for the men, blue and violet; and for the women, lighter red, lighter yellow, and green.

[1]