Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-07-23
MADNESS IN COLORS.
TlNTS THAT WILL TURN THE BRAIN
AND INVITE DEATH.
Purple II the Most Lethnl Of All
HINES, and Scarlet II Nearly ~ Rad.
Blu VIII stimulate the Brain. hut
II VII Wreck the N%erves.

Hues, and carlet II Nearly a. Bad.
Blue viii stimulate the Brain. hut
IL Will Wreck the Nerves.
Ii purple walls and red tinted win
dows surrounded you for Il month. with
no color but purple around you, by the
md of that time you would be a mad
man. No matter how strong the brain
might be, it would not stand the strain,
and it is doubtful if you would ever re-
cover your reason, for purple Is the
most dangerous color there is in its
effects on the brain, which it reaches
by way of the nerves of the eye.
A splash or two of any other color
In the room would save your reason for
some time longer. but dead purple
would kill you eventually as surely as
would foul air. Scarlet is as bad, but
scarlet has a different effect. 1t pro-
duces what is called homicidal mania
"a madness that drives its victim to
kill his fellows. especially his nearest
relatives. Even on animals scarlet has
this effect. 1t will drive a bull or a
tiger to charge a naked spear. But
purple, on the contrary. brings OH mel
ancholy or suicidal mania.
Blue, as long as there Is no trace of
red in it, stimulates the brain and helps
it, but its effect on your nerves, II you
are saturated with it and cannot get
away from it, is terrible. Scientists
class blue as a kind of drug in its ef-
fects on the brain.
1t eXcites the Imagination and gives
a craving for music and stagecraft,
but it has a reaction that wrecks the
nerves. If you doubt it stare hard for
a few minutes at a large sheet OF
bright blue paper or cloth-not flowers
for there Is a good deal of green in
their blue-and you will find that it
will make your eyes ache and give you
a restless, uneasy feeling.
Green, on the other hand, is the king
Of colors, and no amount of it can do
any harm. On the contrary. it soothes
the whole system and preserves the
eyesight. IL you were shut up in an
artificial green light for II month it
would develop your eyesight immense
", but it would be fatal, because when
you returned to the world you would
be utterly unable to stand ordinary
lights and colors and you would GER
tainly contract ophthalmia. or possibly
destroy the optic nerve altogether un-
less you were very mindful to take
great care.
Most people imagine the sky in clear
weather to be blue. 1t is really white
tinged with green. 1t is only the dis
lance and c~learness which make II
seem blue.
Green is so soothing that it makes
a big difference in the length Of an
illness, helping the system to fight the
disease. and nearly all hospital wards
have every possible detail about them
colored green. Sage green is the most
soothing tint Of all; metallic green
however, is by no SO good.
Solitary confinement in a yellow Gel
for six weeks will hopelessly weaker
any system and produce chronic hys
terra. A long course Of it will pro
duce foolish lunacy, and even on
guinea pig or a rabbit will drive thu
animal at last to bite and wound itsel
or reduce it to such q state of nervous
ness that 1t will die Of sheer fright l
suddenly startled.
On the other hand. If you are no
smothered with it yellow is the health
est, cheeriest color there Is, and vii
make q dark room bright and habita
BILE when even green would be coll
and depressing. But to be well 'soused
with yellow day and night. and TO b
unable to get away from 1t, woul
bring you to nervous madness With
two months at the outside.
Sheer dead white, unbroken, Will d.
stroy your eyesight as surely as cats
ract would If you are exposed to it Il
q few days-a week at the latest.
kills the optic nerves, and h sigl
D goes out like a candle, while the effet
0 on the brain is so maddening thu
: blindness is almost a relief.
This is why arctic explorers have
: wear colored goggles Of green tinte
glass; otherwise snow blindness"
it is called, and which is really whit
blindness" is almost a certainty. Eve
in the polar regions, though, the viii
, is not complete. The sky breaks 1t.
it did not no man could keep his ey
sight there without glasses.-New Yor
News.