Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1904-02-06
AFFECTS M BRAIN.
Certain Colors Said to Undermine the
Reason and Produce Madness.

Reason n FToouCe "doiSe%
II purple walls and a red tinted wlnoo"
surrounded you for a month, with no
color but purple around you, by the END
Of that time you would be a maanhah'
saws nswer NJ matter how strong
YOUR brain might be, II would not stanu
the strain, and IL Is doubtful II you Woulu
ever recover your reason. For purple Is
! the most dangerous color there is-in It's
effects on the brain, which 1t reaches py
way oc the nerves Of the eye.
A splash or two of any other color III
the room would save your reason TOT
some time longer; but dead purple would
kill YOU eventually, as surely as would
foul air. Scarlet Is as bad, but scarlet
has q different effect. IL produce what
is called homicidal man!a-a madness thai
drives It's victim TO Kill his Fellows, espe-
cially his nearest relatives. Even on am
mails. scarlet has this effect. 1t will drive
a bull or a tiger to charge a naked spear.
But purple, on the contrary, brings on
melancholy or suicide mania.
Blue. as long as there Ia no trace OF
red in II, stimulates the brain, n helps
it; but it's effect on your nerves, II you
are saturated with II, and cannot get
away from IL, Is terrible. Scientists class
blue as a kind of drug N Its effects Do the
brain.
u excites the imagination, and gives a
craving for music and stagecraft, but 1t
has a reaction that wrecks the nerves. III
you doubt 1t, stare hard for a Few min
utes at a large sheet OF bright blu paper
or cloth-not flowers, Tor 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, II soothes
the whole system, and preserves the eye
sight: If you were shut up In an artificial
green light for a month 1t would de-
velop your eyesight immensely; but II
would be fatal, because when you return
to the world you would be Unable to stand
ordinary lights and colors, and you would
certainly contract ophthalmia, or possibly
destroy the optic nerve altogether, unless
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 n clearness which make 1t seem
blue.
Green Is 30 soothing that 1t makes q
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 nc
means so good.
oOklldIy AA " ~ ~ 49,
six weeks will hopelessly weaken any
system and produce chronic hysteria. A
long enough course Of II will produce fool
ish lunacy, and even on a guinea pig OIL
a rabbit will drive the animal at last tt
either bite and wound itself, or reduce 4
to such a state Of nervousness that 4
will die Of sheer fright II suddenly star
tied.
On the other hand, II you are no
smothered with IL, yellow Is the health
lest, cheer!est color there is, and will
make a dark room bright and habitable
when even green would be cold and de
pressing. But to be well "soused" will
yellow, day and night, and to be unabl,
to get away from II. would bring you I,
nervous madness within two months a
the outside.
Sheer dead white. unbroken. will de
stroy your elesight as surely as cat
aract" would II you are exposed to 1
for a few days-a week at latest. It Kill
the optic nerves, and the sight goes GU
Ike q candle, while the effect on tn
brain Is so maddening that blindness 1
almost a relief.
This IL why Arctic explorers have I
wear colored goggles" Of green tinte
glass, otherwise snow blindness as II 1
/, called. and which is really white blind
, ness" is almost a certainty. Even In tn
(. polar regions, though, he white is no
. complete. The sky breaks II. II II di
not, no man could keep his eyesight ther
without glasses.