“The vowels of the English language always appear to me, when I think of them, as possessing certain colours, of which I enclose a diagram.  Consonants, when thought of by themselves, are of a purplish black; but when I think of a whole word, the colour of the consonants tends towards the colour of the vowels.  For example, in the word ‘Tuesday,’ when I think of each letter separately, the consonants are purplish-black, u is a light dove colour, e is a pale emerald green, and a is yellow; but when I think of the whole word together, the first part is a light gray-green, and the latter part yellow.  Each word is a distinct whole.  I have always associated the same colours with the same letters, and no effort will change the colour of one letter, transferring it to another.  Thus the word ‘red’ assumes a light-green tint, while the word ‘yellow’ is light-green at the beginning and red at the end.  Occasionally, when uncertain how a word should be spelt, I have considered what colour it ought to be, and have decided in that way.  I believe this has often been a great help to me in spelling, both in English and foreign languages.  The colour of the letters is never smeared or blurred in any way.  I cannot recall to mind anything that should have first caused me to associate colours with letters, nor can my mother remember any alphabet or reading-book coloured in the way I have described, which I might have used as a child.  I do not associate any idea of colour with musical notes at all, nor with any of the other senses.”

She adds:—­

“Perhaps you may be interested in the following account from my sister of her visual peculiarities:  ’When I think of Wednesday I see a kind of oval flat wash of yellow emerald green; for Tuesday, a gray sky colour; for Thursday, a brown-red irregular polygon; and a dull yellow smudge for Friday.’”

[Footnote 9:  Zwangmaessige Lichtempfindungen durch Schall und verwandte Erscheinungen, von E. Bleuler und K. Lehmann.  Leipsig, Fues’ Verlag (R.  Reisland), 1881.]

The latter quotation is a sample of many that I have; I give it merely as another instance of hereditary tendency.

I will insert just one description of other coloured letters than those represented in the Plate.  It is from Mrs. H., the married sister of a well-known man of science, who writes:—­

“I do not know how it is with others, but to me the colours of vowels are so strongly marked that I hardly understand their appearing of a different colour, or, what is nearly as bad, colourless to any one.  To me they are and always have been, as long as I have known them, of the following tints:—­”

A, pure white, and like china in texture.

E, red, not transparent; vermilion, with china-white would represent it.

I, light bright yellow; gamboge.

O, black, but transparent; the colour of deep water seen through thick clear ice.