AND ALLIED CONDITIONS. HARRIS. 323 



for we have no satisfactory explanations of any of these 

 matters. The very arbitrariness of the associations defies 

 theoretical analysis. 



If it is the function of science merely to describe, then 

 our work is done; but in a subject such as this, to make no 

 attempt to account for the abstruse phenomena observed 

 would be a distinctly feeble conclusion of our studies. It 

 has been suggested that the case of coloured thinking is 

 no more recondite than the influence of some picture-book 

 or paint-box, which in early life determined for us ever 

 afterwards the colours of certain concepts. Now, though 

 many people do regard their coloured thinking as a childish 

 survival, the picture-books will account for very few of the 

 best established psychochromes. In some few cases, environ- 

 mental influences do seem to have been casual. Thus, in 

 one case known to the writer, the colour of February as 

 white was accounted for by the influence of the surroundings. 

 The earliest February remembered was showy, and through 

 the whiteness of the snow the concept of February came to be 

 and ever afterwards remained 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 as brown and yet 

 another as crimson. If August is white to one person be- 

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

 white to all persons capable of receiving any impressions 

 as to the colours of harvest. But to the vast majority of 

 people it is perfectly absurd to talk of August having any 

 colour at all; and to the few who think it coloured, it has 

 not by any means the same colour; all seems confusion. 



Monsieur Peillaube(°^) has made a suggestion of a different 

 kind as likely to explain some of these colour associations. 



Proc. & Trans. N. S. Inst. Sci., Vol. XIII. Trans. 22. 



