The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-27
COLORS TO CURE INSANE.
Wards Island Physicians Try Their
Eject on Patients.
From the New York Times. z.

Eject on Patients.
From the New York Times.
A new cure for insanity is being
tested by Drs. Bond and Monette on
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 experiments required.
In this new treatment only the pri-
mary colors are employed, but so COM
pletely is a patient surrounded by an
atmosphere of a particular color,
deemed best by the physicians for his
particular mania, that the vibrations
must act upon him. The rooms of this
ward are small, and the furniture con-
sists of an iron bed and a 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 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. AS matter of fact it
tends to soothe, and soon it is noticed
that the subject becomes quieter. Red,
producing more vibrations to the sec
ond than any other color, is employed
when nlelancholia is being treated.
a &c = 81 Ind
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 in
sanity; blue and green rooms for the
boisterous, and a white room for the
person who is practically we'll.
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 combi-
nation of the rays. of light from the
different rooms is quite startling for a
That the different colors have effect
ION the insane patient was we'll Illus
trated the other day when woman
suffering from melancholia was led
down the hall. First come the black
rooms; these she passed without eVinc-
ing any difference in her state of OBJ
servatien. The violet, green, and 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 abruptly in front of the
room with the red walls. She raised
her head instantly, looked into the
room, and then about her. The vi
-brations produced by this color had
evidently been felt by her, while the
others had had no effect. In this
way the room is generally selected for
the patient. OF course. when the case
of melancholia is so bad that nothing
will attract attention, a red room can
not be supposed to have immediate eff
feet, but after week or two weeks in
this room some slight Improvement
may be noticed; the glance of an eye,
the motion of hand or the head mean
much to the doctors-more than the
layman would ever imagine.
There are rooms of three shades OF
the same color, each lighter by sew
eral degrees than the preceding one.
From red the patient is removed to a
deep pink room,. from this to one of a
flesh tint, and then they generally
come out we'll, or so nearly we'll that
only a certain number of hours in the
day need be spent in the color room.