10 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



apt to be in many families in regard to subjects of much com- 

 moner experience. Three persons of the same family think of 

 March as brown, steel grey and orange respectively. 



6. The sixth characteristic of coloured thinking is its iin- 

 accountableness. "I cannot account for it in any way" seems 

 the all but universal remark made by these seers. No line of 

 research seems to lead to any explanation of more than an 

 occasional psychochrome. Many persons, regarding it as a 

 childish survival, have not cared to confess to possessing it at 

 all or have never tried to trace it to a probable source. Possibly, 

 in some few cases, the impressions left by early picture books 

 and paint boxes may have been responsible for some of the 

 mental colours. In a very few instances, such an association as 

 the following may account for the colour of a thought^ — ^The 

 earliest February I can remember was snowy ; through the white- 

 ness of snow the thought of February came to be coloured white. 



But it is clear that if environmental influences are operative 

 in anything like a large number of cases, the colours for such 

 concepts as the months of the year ought to be far more uniform 

 than they are. No common origin of external source can make 

 one person think of August as white, another brown, another 

 yellow, a fourth crimson. If August is white to one person 

 because it is the month of white harvest, then it ought to be 

 white to all persons capable of receiving any impressions from 

 the colours of harvest. But to the vast majority of persons it is 

 perfectly absurd to think of August as having any colour at all ; 

 and to the few who think it coloured, it has by no means the 

 same colour; all seems confusion. 



A little light is thrown on coloured thinking by some consideration 

 like the following; psychochromaesthetes are liable to associate with 

 concepts of something pleasant the colours they like, and with things 

 unpleasant the colours they dislike. Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, in 

 a private communication, was good enough to inform me that she has 

 always associated with herself, her birthday, the month of her birth- 

 day and the first letter of her name, the colour blue, because blue is 

 her favourite colour. But on the other hand, another person whose 

 favourite colour is heliotrope never associates this colour with any 

 concept whatever; all seems confusion. 



The associating of a colour with a person is commoner than it 

 might be thought; it is known as "coloured individuation." 



