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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



may witness, according to certain authors, some most amusing 

 disputes. Efforts have been made to trace a mean of designations 

 for the vowels, and to indicate the associations most frequently 

 perceived. It is very doubtful whether such statistics can give 

 important results, and whether the correct association can be got 

 from the majority ; for the probability must be recognized of the 

 existence of several types of colored audition, which have not yet 

 been clearly distinguished. Furthermore, persons are most fre- 

 quently incapable of exactly determining and denning the color 

 that appears to them. Their incapacity is associated with the facts 

 that the shading varies not only with the words, but with the eleva- 

 tion of the voice that pronounces them, its timbre, and its accent. 

 A word never has the same color from two different mouths. Con- 

 sequently there is no definite red for a or for any other vowel. 

 Some authors have nevertheless published colored diagrams in 

 which the subjects have tried to represent their colored alphabet. 

 These representations may hold good for colors, but not for shades ; 

 it is not that the subjects are lacking in good faith, but they can 

 not fix with precision a color that oscillates and is transformed 

 under the influence of a multitude of intangible causes. We can 

 not stop with describing the phenomena, but must explain as far 

 as we can what passes in the minds of the persons who experience 

 impressions of color in connection with sound. What do they 

 mean when they say, for instance, that a appears red to them ? 



Persons affected with colored audition form a curious illusion 

 respecting their psychological condition. Till the moment, when 

 they are questioned respecting their impressions, they are satis- 

 fied that the faculty of coloring sounds is natural, normal, and 

 common to all ; and they learn the contrary not without uneasi- 

 ness. One is never satisfied if he knows that he possesses, deep 

 in his mind, an exceptional trait. All of this kind that is ex- 

 ceptional seems abnormal, and assumes the character of a disease. 

 This opinion is that of many doctors, who would often have much 

 difficulty in denning the condition of psychological health, but 

 imagine that whatever departs from that ideal and imperfectly 

 understood condition is in the domain of pathology. Numerous 

 authors who have written on colored audition have been laudably 

 zealous in comforting those who perceive these impressions. 

 Most — not all of them — have affirmed many times that it is a 

 purely physiological act. We believe they are fundamentally 

 right — but how far? 



The phenomenon is often presented in an inexact light. It is 

 easily understood now that it is not a disease of the eyes or the 

 ears, but many authors continue to see in it a disorder of percep- 

 tion, or a double perception, or a confusion of the physiological 

 acts of seeing and hearing. 



