[HARRIS] COLOURED THINKING 9 



2 The second characteristic of coloured thinking is the 

 unchangeableness of the colour thought of. Middle-aged people 

 tell us there has been no alteration in the colours or even in the 

 tints and shades of them ever since they can remember havmg 

 thought in colours at all. Galton's remarks were, "They are 

 very little altered by the accident of education," "they are 

 due to 'Nature not nurture.' " 



Just as their origination is, apparently, not due to the 

 influence of the environment, so the environment exercises no 

 modifying influence on them during a long life. 



3. The third characteristic of psychochromes is the extreme 

 definiteness in the minds of their possessors. Contrary to what 

 might reasonably be expected, the colours attached to concepts 

 are not vague or incapable of accurate verbal description. A 

 coloured thinker is most fastidious in the choice of terms to give 

 adequate expression to his mental imagery. One of these is not 

 content in speaking of September as grey, he must call it steel- 

 grey, another speaks of dull white, silvery white, the colour of 

 watered silk, and so on. One child speaks of March as ' art 

 blue-" another of 6 p.m. as "pinkish:' The degree of chromatic 

 precision which can be given by coloured thinkers to their 

 visualizings is as extraordinary as any of the extraordinary things 

 connected with this curious subject. 



4. The fourth characteristic is the complete non-agreement 

 between the various colours attached to the same concept in the 

 minds of different coloured thinkers. Thus nine persons think 

 of Tuesday thus— brown, purple, dark blue, brown, blue, white, 

 black, pink and blue. Again, September is thought of as pale 

 yellow, steel-grey and orange by three different coloured thinkers 

 respectively. Once more, the vowel "i" is thought of as black, 

 red-violet, yellow, white and red respectively by five persons 

 gifted with chromatic mentation; the colours are essentially 

 one's own; these psychochromes are not shared. 



5. The fifth characteristic is the hereditary nature of the 

 condition. Galton's own phrase was "very hereditary." The 

 extremely early age at which coloured thinking reveals itself 

 would of itself indicate that this propensity was either hereditary 

 or congenital. Heredity from father to son is quite common. 

 In a case well known to myself, the brother, nephew and first 

 cousin of a coloured thinker are all coloured thinkers. In 

 common language, it "runs in families," but there is no more 

 unanimity in the family in this obscure subject than there is 



