562 Proceedings. 



Messrs. C. Hill and W. H. Warren gave demonstrations of the musical 

 possibilities of these instruments. 



Paper. — " A Comparison of the Decimal and Sextal Scales 

 of Notation," by C. W. Adams. 



Fourth Meeting : 1th August, 1907. 

 Professor H. B. Kirk. President, in the chair. 

 New Members. — Dr. M. Pomare and Mr. W. G-. Collington Swan. 

 Exhibits. — Mr. A. Hamilton, Director of the Colonial Museum, 

 exhibited a number of recent additions to the Museum collec- 

 tions. 



Papers. — 1. " A Case of Coloured Hearing," by Mrs. H. M. 

 Christie. 



In vol. xxxii of the "Contemporary Science Series," entitled "Hal- 

 lucinations and Illusions," may be found a short account of the some- 

 what obscure phenomenon of coloured hearing. For the benefit of those 

 to whom the subject may be unfamibar, I may explain that coloured 

 hearing consists of the involuntary mental association of colours with 

 sounds, or, to quote the scientific definition in Dr. Forel's work on hypnot- 

 ism, "There is still one other sight, a mental vision — viz.. the repercus- 

 sion of these optical stimuli of the visual sphere in other associated areas 

 of the cortex of the cerebrum. There are people who are able to see sounds 

 coloured, inasmuch as they always associate certain colours with certain 

 sounds or vowels." The special colour-sensations associated with par- 

 ticular sounds always remain constant in the same individual, but the 

 relation is purely individual, and not referable to any known general law. 



Letters of the alphabet (more particularly the vowel-sounds), notes of 

 musical instruments, and numerals call up colour-sensations in the minds 

 of persons possessed of this faculty, whether the sound of the letters. &c., 

 be actually heard or only mentally presented. 



It is found that a certain percentage of persons is possessed of this 

 peculiarity, and that it is sometimes hereditary. 



This sensation is designated a phot ism or chromatism by PrGfessor 

 Gruber, who has conducted some experiments with several subjects of the 

 " hallucination," as it is described in the tirst -mentioned work. He tells 

 us that few people can remember when their chromat isms began : and that 

 deep tones or vowel-sounds seem generally to be associated with dark 

 colours, and sharp tones or high-sounding vowels with lighter-colour sensa- 

 tions. The coloured alphabet which I have prepared in accordance with 



my own observations will show corroboration of the latter statement, 



the letter being associated with deep-blue, while 1 and E arc white and 

 yellow respectively. Letters of the alphabet and numerals arc. in my 

 experience, productive of colour-impressions, but there arc no distinct 

 sensations with regard to music. Of the letters, the colours of the vowels 

 are most prominent, a single vowel in a word often producing a colour- 

 impression which will subordinate all the colours of Burroundine con- 

 sonants to itself. Thus, in considering the word "stop," the dark-blue 

 of the vowel <) predominates over all the other colours. The colour of 



a consonant is frequently modified by the colour of an adjoining vowel; 

 iii fact, the various colours represented by the different letters composing 



a word lend to modify each other in a greater or less degree. For example, 

 in the word " book " the dark-blue associated with the Idler is the pre- 



