THE PSYCHOLOGY OF YELLOW 463 



seems yellow.' This perpetual inhibition, initiated by the early chris- 

 tians, of the agreeable associations of yellow, and the concomitant 

 emphasis, not only in language but also in actual life, of all its most 

 unpleasant associations, may possibly account for the predominant 

 emotional tone of yellow among peoples of European origin to-day. 



A doubt may indeed possibly arise as to the complete adequacy of 

 such an explanation. Can we absolutely exclude any innate psychic 

 tendency physiologically rooted in the organism? A curious circum- 

 stance recorded by Latta, in his careful psychological investigation of 

 a man operated on at the age of thirty for congenital cataract, might 

 possibly be held to support the doubt. The first color that the subject 

 noticed on recovering from the operation was red, while green took 

 him the longest time to master. But ' the first time he saw yellow he 

 became so sick that he thought he would vomit.' 17 One might be 

 tempted to regard this incident as a brilliant justification of the asso- 

 ciation between bile and yellow and of the attitude of Christendom 

 towards this color; an adult man, whose visual sense-organs have re- 

 tained their virginal delicacy, at once becomes ' bilious ' when he sees 

 yellow ! But, even putting aside the possibility of idiosyncrasy, it is 

 fairly obvious that the man would approach the sight of colors with 

 certain prepossessions ; we are not told that he was shown yellow with- 

 out being informed of its name, and since blind people are interested 

 and curious with regard to the nature of color, we may well believe 

 that this man had imbibed the current ideas as to yellow and that the 

 appropriate affective tone was already associated with the color before 

 he had ever seen it. 



However that may be, the strange history of yellow in the human 

 mind and its striking vicissitudes are not only full of interest, but they 

 really bring us up to a great problem which the psychologist must 

 constantly face under a myriad of aspects: the respective parts which 

 must be assigned to the innate properties of the psychic organism and 

 to the temporary reactions it has acquired under the influence of a 

 slowly shifting environment. How far, the psychologist must so often 

 ask himself, am I investigating the intrinsic qualities of the stream of 

 consciousness? How far am I registering the images reflected from 

 its banks? 



17 British Journal Psychology, June, 1904. 



