A case of synaesthesia / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Myers, Charles S. (Charles Samuel), 1873-1946.
Date:
[1911?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A case of synaesthesia / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    600: 1200. 800: 1000. 600: 800. 800: 900. I only hear one sound. It is a bright pink, and quite pleasant. A salmon or mullet suggests itself, probably owing to colour. Again there is an attempt to separate a blue from grey. But I am not sure the grey is there. I think the colour is an electric blue with a sheen-like effect, which suggests the hood of a gown, the B.A. hood of Birming¬ ham University. This gives a burnt-sienna effect, with an overtinge of blue. It is indifferent or unpleasant. It suggests a French artist, whose name I forget, who paints with an overtinge of blue. Only one sound. A good thorough mixture of colours, a steel blue colour,—as if the components were being rotated on a colour wheel. From these answers it will be observed that a complete mixture of the colours of the individual tones only rarely occurs when they are sounded simultaneously. To test this on another occasion, I presented the “blue” tuning-fork tone 512 with the “orange” Tonmesser tone 256. But the colours would not combine; A obtained both blue and orange. At the same sitting I also presented to him a few single tuning-fork tones, both those I had given him singly before and those which I had already sounded simultaneously with others. 600 (eb). 500 (c). 1200 500 (c). 300 O' t>). 1300 (eA 1200 0't>). 700 (/). A rich dark Prussian blue, suggesting pictures, such as Burne-Jones painted. Soft brown. It suggests a lady’s dress. Half-way between blue and white. It suggests a clear sky after sunset. Brown to pink, finally shading off to blue. It appeared to change as the tone was dying away. Brown with definite pinkish tinge, finally shading off to pink. Thinnish blue. Fainter, thinner. Blue, shading off to grey. This seems like a mixture of pink and blue. It reminds me again of the College blazer; only it is bluer than before. In all these cases the colour came first, and later suggested the