Waterbury Democrat., 1902-12-02
COLORS TO CURE INSANE
HOSPITAL ON Wards Island Tries
Painting Walls OF Patients
Rooms for Acute Mania.

A new cure for insanity is being
tested by Drs. Bond and Monette Cd
Wards Island. The color cure is a
treatment new to alienists, but one
that promises to become very success:
full, for, so far, a great many of the
patients taken to the color ward have
been cured. DR.. Dent, superintendent
of the woman's hospital on the island.
directed that a ward be set aside for
the color treatment, and be fitted with
all that the experiment required, re-
ports the New York Times of recent
date. ~
In this new treatment only the pri
mary colors are employed, but SO COM
pletely is a patient surrounded by an
atmosphere of particular color,
deemed best by the physicians for his
particular mania, that the vibra tions
must act upon him. The rooms of this
ward are small, and the furniture con-
sists of an iron bed and chair. The
walls are painted in vivid color, the bed
and chair colored to correspond with
the walls, and the light Sits into the
room through q shade of the same
color, so that an atmosphere of this
color is created.
When one of the patients suffers
from acute mania the room that is
painted black, a very dungeon of a
room, falls to her lot. This complete
darkness and the silence@of the place
seldom fail to have some effect on
the patient. A& matter of fact it
tends to soothe, and soon it is noticed
that the subject becomes quieter
Red, producing more vibrations to the
second than any other color, lis en-
ployed when melancholia is being
treated. These rays of red attract the
mind, their vibrations are necessarily
felt by the patient, and the thoughts
in the poor brain are set in motion.
There are violet rooms for mild forms
of insanity; blue and green rooms for
the bo1sterous, and white room for
the person who is practically well.
A recreation room or. hall extends
through the middle of the long, low
building. On each side of this hall are
ranged the rooms, and as the visitor
steps from the outdoor light into the
subdued quiet of the hall the com
bination of the rays of light from the
q moment.
That the different colors have effect
on the insane patient was well illus
trated the other day when a woman
suffering from melaneholia was led
down the hall. First come the black
rooms; these she passed without
eyincing any difference in her state of
observation. The violet, green aud
blue rooms had the same effect: before
each door she paused, but did not raise
her eyes. Then came the brilliant
orange room. For a moment she
raised her eyes, then lowered them
again. Three of these rooms she
passed, and was then brought abrupt
~ in front Of the room with the red
walls. She raised her head Instant
", looked into the room, and then
about her. The vibrations produced
by this color had evidently been felt
by her, while the others had had no
effect. In this way the room is gem
orally selected for the patient. Of
course, when the case of melancholia
is SO bad that nothing will attract at
tention, a red room cannot be sup
posed to have immediate effect. but
after week or two weeks in this
room some slight Improvement may be
noticed, the glance of an eye, the mo-
ton of hand or the head mean much
to the doctorsmore than the layman
would ever imagine.
There are rooms Of three shades Of
the same color, each lighter by several
degrees than the preceding one From
red the patient is removed to deep
pink room, from this to one of flesh
tint, and then they generally come out
well, or 50 nearly well that only GER
tain number of hours in the day need
be spent in the color roora
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