Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 42.djvu/523

Rh forty forms, which I have incidentally collected during the last four years, together with some explanatory remarks and a few suggestions toward a future theory. It is hoped, too, that further attention may be called to the subject, and other contributions made to this curious chapter in psychology.

With about half a dozen exceptions, the accompanying forms have been gathered from college students of both sexes, varying in age from eighteen to twenty-five years. They are taken from drawings made in every case by the "seer" himself, in response to some such question as this: "When you think of the numbers



from 1 to 100, do you mentally see them in any form, or outline? If so, can you draw a representation of it?" At first about seventy-five students, of whom thirty were young women, were thus interrogated. In this examination it was probably understood that only well-defined and perhaps somewhat striking number forms were called for. As a result, only four forms were found, two from young women (Figs. 1 and 2) and two from young men (Figs. 3 and 4). This would correspond roughly with Galton's estimate that one out of every thirty adult males, and one out of every fifteen adult females, has a number form. My own later experience, however, has developed the fact that such a mode of investigation does not discover the full number of persons possessing forms, simple or complex. There are several reasons for this. The subject is not commonly understood when first presented. It would seem that a person having even a complicated number form might live and die without knowing it, or