Color Blindness Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Color Blindness, including details on causes, classification, red-green and blue-yellow color blindness, diagnosis.

A possible account of synaesthesia dating from the seventeenth century.

Larner AJ

Cognitive Function Clinic, Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool, United Kingdom. a.larner@thewaltoncentre.nhs.uk

An account of a blind man able to detect colors by touch, dating from the mid-seventeenth century, is presented. The details come to us through the physician John Finch, the scientist Robert Boyle, and the author Jonathan Swift. The details in the account suggest the possibility that this may be an early report of colored-touch synaesthesia.

Published 4 August 2006 in J Hist Neurosci, 15(3): 245-9.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2005-2008 Color Blindness Research Today. All Rights Reserved.