370 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ah) is the most sharply colored a burning red and o (in go) is 

 of a deep blue. These colors Dr. Karsten associates with the use 

 of these vowels as interjections, ah having the red hue of interest 

 or surprise, O the blue shade of pity or regret; a (in may) is 

 greenish, a (in cat) is yellow, in law dark brown ; e (in tree) is 

 white, i (in in) is grayish, o (in on) dull violet, oo is black, and u 

 dusky grayish. 



A lady of my acquaintance recognizes color associations only 

 with certain proper names. Thus, with her, Caesar is crimson, 

 Theodore blue, Lillian white, Mary or May yellow, Ethel and its 

 compounds lavender, Edith heliotrope. Only names of some 

 marked quality seem to have any color at all. Thus John, James, 

 and the like are without this attribute. 



In his article on Word Color, already mentioned, Prof. Edward 

 Spencer has given an interesting account of his own asso- 

 ciations of color with words. The substance of his observations 

 he has kindly condensed in a letter to me, from which I quote as 

 follows, adding to it two or three suggestive paragraphs from 

 his paper on Word Color : 



" It is natural that the first assertion of the experience of double 

 impressions should have been received with incredulity. I have 

 vainly tried for years to find ears attentive to what I honestly 

 believed a real and reasonable experience, and it is now a great 

 satisfaction to me to see the remarkable growth of interest in this 

 class of subjects. 



"My own experience with this class of phenomena has been 

 almost entirely confined to the observation of shade and color as 

 being inseparably connected with characters and words. Word 

 color was first observed by me at the age of six years. At the 

 time it suddenly flashed upon my mind that stone was light 

 in color and the word ' rock ' was darker, each one quite nearly 

 resembling the color of the article to which the name was ap- 

 plied. Soon after this time the Arabic figure 8 appeared a beauti- 

 ful golden yellow. Next, when beginning the study of Greek, the 

 letter 6 (theta) appeared the color of pearl. Since then shade and 

 color have manifested themselves in an ever-increasing list of 

 characters and words, until they are now perceived in most of the 

 letters and in all parts of speech in all the languages with which 

 I have any acquaintance. 



" All suggest to the mind an appearance of shade : some being 

 very light ; others dark, and others medium. Color is less often 

 distinguished, but when seen it is even clearer than is the degree 

 of shade. Beginning with one color yellow, seen in 'rock ' the 

 list has slowly increased until it now includes cream, pearl, black, 

 gray, golden brown, orange, light blue, light and dark brown. 

 The last mentioned was first noticed while writing these pages. 



