Memoir concerning certain phenomena of vision by M. Monge “Memoire sur quelques phénomènes de la vision” Annales de Chimie 3 131–147 (1789)

The mysteries of the subjective relativity of colors are long recognized and of continuing fascination. It was the Greeks of antiquity who had not only noticed but also described the problem faced by weavers, who at times were confused by the color of the yarns when the source of light changed from the sun to an oil lamp. Similar problems were known to painters keen on reproducing nature faithfully. At the same time, there was the puzzling adaptation of our vision to the prevailing light, making a white fabric appear white in the light of the oil lamp as well as that of the sun. Simultaneous and successive contrasts, colored shadows, and other phenomena were all difficult to fit into a view of orderliness that Newton's findings appeared to propose. Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) has been named as the first painter who noticed colored shadows. As we will see below, Monge names the Abbé de Sauvages as having described them first. From the literature we know the descriptions of the Count of Buffon (1707–1788) and of Goethe (1749–1832). A particularly puzzling and difficult problem is that of the appearance of colored objects when viewed through transparent colored materials such as glass. These effects are not generally known, even today. They were of sometime interest to a French scientist and politician, Gaspard Monge, who described his findings and interpretations in a memoir of a demonstration and presentation he gave to the Académie Royale des Sciences in May of 1789, shortly before the revolution. The memoir was published in the same year in the Annales de chimie, of which he was one of the founders. Monge, who was born on May 9, 1746 in Beaune in Burgundy, led a life of considerable fascination that on the one hand resulted in close interaction with some of the leading French scientists of his time, on the other he was a personal friend of the emperor Napoleon. Despite his prominence and high exposure, he managed to mostly avoid the problems that many of his contemporaries ran afoul of during his tumultuous lifetime ranging from the late ancien régime to the fall of Napoleon. Monge's main scientific contributions are those of a geometrist and mathematician. He was a professor at the École Royale du Génie and became a member of the Royal Academy of Science in 1780. He wrote standard works on descriptive, analytic, and infinitesimal geometry. One of his particular mathematical interests was partial differential equations. He became examiner of naval cadets. He independently, at the same time as Lavoisier, synthesized water from hydrogen and oxygen and became one of the first proponents of Lavoisier's new chemistry. Involvement in a forge his wife owned and in weapons production resulted in studies in metallurgy. He was a supporter of the revolution and became for a time the minister of the navy of the new administration. During the Directory he became involved in several state missions. He also became director of the École Polytechnique. At the request of Napoleon, he helped to prepare the expedition to Egypt and at his urging participated in it. Napoleon named him senator for life, president of the Senate, and presented him with the title of Count of Péluse. Monge remained loyal to Napoleon after his dethronement and throughout the Hundred Days. For this he was expelled from the Academy in 1816 and he lived the remaining years until his death in Paris on July 28, 1818 solitary and disappointed. Monge's interest in vision and color seemed to have been temporary and one of the many activities of a keen and restless mind. However, he repeated his findings in this field in later editions of his book on descriptive geometry. His only other contributions to the general subject were memoranda on double refraction and the structure of Iceland spar, and on the causes of some meteorological phenomena. His paper on color vision phenomena is one of the most incisive in the history of ideas on the subjective nature of color. It is not a complete treatment of this subject, but rather a description of puzzling phenomena accompanied by sharply reasoned speculations concerning their cause. For a modern assessment of Monge's achievement see Mollon. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Col Res Appl, 22, 199–203, 1997