The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-31
INFLUENCE OF COLORS
on THE MENTAL STATE
OF HUMAN CREATURES

CI II L W 1N CNEH ONEO
CONCLUDED FROM PAGE 1, PART p
dgo and violet-just as all reds have the
opposite influence.
A Paris insanity expert achieved some
remarkable results with color cures, if L
may so express myself without his consent.
His house has red, green, blue and violet
wings. Patients suffering from melancholia,
or a milder form of a sad unhappy tenn
permanent. are placed in the wing decorated
Throughout in red. The red color, according
TO wide experience, gladdens the unhappy
men and women, rouses them from stupor
and causes them TO take new interest in
their own well-being and in life in gen.
eral.
CURE FOR VIOLENT PATIENTS.
Violent patients are lodged in the violet
wings, where floors, ceilings. walls and
decorations are done in the hue named
and the light enters throughout vioet-col-
ored panes. The statistics of the institution
show that some remarkable results have
been obtained through this simple
method-difference in external and internal
use OF color rays.
The influence exercised by color rays upon
the human skin is decidedly contrary to
that exercised upon the nervous system
Violet rays are likely to irritate the skim
red rays have no influence whatever
upon il.
In Denmark and other northern countries,
where people are of an even, cold tempera-
ment, red is successfully used to fight small
pox and kindred diseases Patients are
placed i'm rooms entirely decorated in red,
with red glass windows. Their bed sheets,
the quilts and blankets used are all of red
color, even the nurses and doctors put on
red gowns before enterining-in short, every
possible precaution is taken to keep out vio-
let rays. This is the revival of a cure in
vogue during the middle ages, when IL
fa
ish physician, DIR. Finsen, has informed me
that under the influence of the red the pus-
tues ripen and dry quicker and that the
course of the disease is considerably short
ened, to the great and lasting benefit of the
patient, who is thus able to preserve much
of his strength, otherwise wasted
AS intimated, this cure gives excellent sat
isfaction in the northern countries, but |
would not like to advocate its introduction
into France or Spain, where people are SAN
guine and hOtsheaded as a general rule.
Members of the Latin races could not en-
dure abiding in red room for any length of
time without the most annoying, and, per-
haps, dangerous nerve-wrecAing experience.
COLORS AND TEMPERAMENT.
The selection of national colors as a rule,
mirrors national sentiment. Take the United
States, for instance-red, white and blue.
American men are all aggressiveness, bust
ness, and, at the same time, fond of fun
there is the red. The women are even-tem-
pered, languid in some portions of the great
empire-that accounts for the blue.
White is the color of peace and of senti-
ment. The people of the United States have
been victorious in every war they ever
engaged in, yet nation there is none
less aggressive or more inclined to forgive
and forget. And again If you take the
sentiment will be found stored away
where it does not interfere with business.
The northern people prefer soft, subdued
- OF rod for find
that the negroes of the Soudan and the
Japs like blue better than any other color;
both these nations are of serious DISPOSE
ton. Traders doing business in the
Soudan carry blue cottons and blue beads
almost exclusively.
In the Congo country, on the other hand.
traders sell red goods only; the Congo
negroes, il will be remembered, are the
most blood-thirsty of all savageS living I'M
der a civilized government.
A missionary just returned from China,
where he lived for twenty years, tells me
that much of the success in business
achieved by German commercial houses in
that vast country is due 10 the fact that
German merchants, hrst OF all, caught on
TO the fact that John Chnaman, who is of
a cruel disposition, likes nothing better
than red-red labels. red signs, red packing
paper, etc, etc. The English merchants
used to offer their goods wrapped in dull
colors; the natives, therefore, bought from
the Germans, who catered to their inherent
prejudices.
There is a language Of colors as we'll as
of sounds. Red is the color of the blood
and war. The war-paint OF numerous saw
ages, particularly among the American In
dams, is a bright red or yellow. Among
certain African tribes etiquette demands
the sending of club, colored with blood,
as gage of war
Considerable research in the literature of
the world would lead me to think that only
very few tribes used white war paint,
namely, certain natives of Australia and
Africa persons of peaceful general dis
position.
color of mourning with them-mourning in
advance for the losses they are sure to sus-
tain in battle.
THE COLOR OF MOURNING.
To-day white is the color of mourning
with most civilized peoples, though the fact
is not generally recognized. In the United
States, as in France and England, a young
child, stricekn by death, is enshrined in
white coffin; the hearse sent for the body is
white. This is as it should be; white means
peace, and the dead are surely gone to a
peaceful after life. The gifted Queen of
Roumania, Carmen Sylvia, pointed out some
little while ago in able essay, there can
be nothing more horrible for contemplation
than the idea that the soul of the departed
is not predestined for eternal rest-that is,
peace
White is the color of mourning for both
young and old i'm Russia, in many other
countries. A diplomat told me the other
day of the misfOrtunes of a French noble
woman. engaged for high position at the
court of ST. Petersburg. Shortly after her
arrival in the domains or the white Gar,
court mourning was proclaimed. and the
young Frenchwoman appeared at even
ing function dressed in black crepe. Seeing
her enter, one of the marshals approached
her quickly and conducted her from the
room, already full of white gowns and ditto
uniforms. But though his Excellency acted
with all POSSIBLE speed, some one caught