The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-11-20

K TOT long ago distinguished ply
IN Stefan, commenting in a medical
journal upon a peculiar divorce
case which had come to his professional
attention, made this statement:
IF the wife had not had their dining
room papered all in red this divorce would
probably never have come about The
red in the room over-stimulated and ex-
hausted the nerve endings in the retina
of the eyes whose work it is to convey to
the brain the color sensation we call red.
These vibrations of color were made worse
at night by bad arrangement Of lighting.
AS a consequence, the tired retinas affected
the optic nerve, which in its turn set up
an irritation in the visual centre OF the
brain. This, in its turn, caused an irri-
tation of the pneumogastric nerve which
controls the stomach and upset the proc
esses of digestion. This, in its tu.n pro-
duced changes in judgment and emotion
which inevitably led to the divorce court.
eff 1t had not been for that red wall
paper the lady probably would be healthy
woman and happy wife to-day"
Everyone knows that in the rooms of
some houses they feel at ease and cheer
full, while in others they are conscious Of
feeling of restlessness and irritation. A
woman will say of these last rooms that
they drive her crazy; and of the first
that she could sit there forever" People
as rule do not know why such rooms az
feet them, but modern science, in studying
the effects Of color upon our health and
mentality, has just made some very in
teresting and remarkable discoveries about
this and other matters. The remarks of
the distinguished physician previously
quoted cover only little bit Of the part
>. science now says color plays in our lives.
Properly to understand how color can so
affect us, 1t is first necessary to explain
what science has comparatively recently
r. discovered color to be. All objects are
POI either luminous or non-luminous. Lumi-
. nous bodies. such as the sun and stars,
send out light. Non-luminous bodies, like
flowers, human beings. stones and so on,
reflect light. What we call light moves
from it's source in a series Of waves and
at the rate of $4,000 miles a second
In the retina of the human eye is a lit
tie arrangement of nerve matter which,
through its shape, is called "the rods and
cones" This small mechanism is sensitive
tn the impact Of the light waves. The rods,
of which there are 30,000000 in the eyes,
are sensitive only to light itself--that is,
they perceive 1t without color. But the
e mes, which are 100000 in number, pick
ont the colors.
The reason for this seems to be as fol.
s: The waves of light are made up Of
= frerent lengths. That is, the distance be-
cen their crests is shorter or longer as
ne case may be. Everyone has seen a
lake at a time when the waves are short
land choppy, and at another time when the
waves are long and rolling. The light
waves move in the same way-except that
the shortest and the longest waves and
all between strike the eyes simultaneously.
Now science has found that light waves
$4,000 of an inch in length-that is
y $4,000 Of an inch between their crests-
create the sensation of violet; these can
be compared to the short, choppy waves on
the lake. But wave lengths 10000 Of an