牛顿关于颜色和色觉的疑问

Newton's Queries on Color and Color Sensation

饶毅教授在《色》一文中提到: "牛顿对人脑感受色觉的理解是 'May not the harmony and discord of colours arise from the proportions of the vibrations propagated through the fibres of the optick nerves into the brain'，提出光振荡的比例通过视神经传到大脑。"

In Newton's "Opticks", there are three queries (questions) related to colors and color sensation. These three queries as in Netwon's original text are listed below:

Qu. 12. Do not the Rays of Light in falling upon the bottom of the Eyeexcite Vibrations in the Tunica Retina? Which Vibrations, being propagated along the solid Fibres of the optick Nerves into the Brain,cause the Sense of seeing. For because dense Bodies conserve their Heata long time, and the densest Bodies conserve their Heat the longest, theVibrations of their parts are of a lasting nature, and therefore may bepropagated along solid Fibres of uniform dense Matter to a greatdistance, for conveying into the Brain the impressions made upon all theOrgans of Sense. For that Motion which can continue long in one and thesame part of a Body, can be propagated a long way from one part toanother, supposing the Body homogeneal, so that the Motion may not bereflected, refracted, interrupted or disorder'd by any unevenness of theBody.

Qu. 13. Do not several sorts of Rays make Vibrations of severalbignesses, which according to their bignesses excite Sensations ofseveral Colours, much after the manner that the Vibrations of the Air,according to their several bignesses excite Sensations of severalSounds? And particularly do not the most refrangible Rays excite theshortest Vibrations for[Pg 346] making a Sensation of deep violet, the leastrefrangible the largest for making a Sensation of deep red, and theseveral intermediate sorts of Rays, Vibrations of several intermediatebignesses to make Sensations of the several intermediate Colours?

Qu. 14. May not the harmony and discord of Colours arise from theproportions of the Vibrations propagated through the Fibres of theoptick Nerves into the Brain, as the harmony and discord of Sounds arisefrom the proportions of the Vibrations of the Air? For some Colours, ifthey be view'd together, are agreeable to one another, as those of Goldand Indigo, and others disagree.

From the context, it is apparent that the "vibrations" in all these three queries do not refer to that of the light, but to that of the optical nerve fibres -- therefore, Prof. Yi Rao's translation of the first sentence of Newton's Qu.14 is incorrect.