Notes Upon the Influence of Coloured Light In the Treatment of the Insane
158 Art. XIV.? :Author: Dr Tagruet, Assistant Medical Officer of the Asylum of Ville Evrard; and Dr ROME, Royal Lunatic Asylum, Dundee, N.B.
In January 1876, Dr Ponza announced to his professional brethren a new mode of treatment of mental affections by- coloured light. This intimation was hailed by the press and by public opinion. An interest was manifested by psychologists generally to test a plan which appeared to secure benefit in cases the most chronic and desperate. There was no difficulty or delay in accepting this new light in the asylum of Ville- Evrard, where the inmates have an undoubted right to every means of rational treatment. Here bromide of potassium, arse- nite of soda, chloral, hypodermic injections of morphia, have all in turn been subjected to experiment and observation. The results of our inquiries have already been submitted to the public in all truth and sincerity, and with perfect respect to our fellow labourers. That all nervous disorders are not affections of the mind, is proved when we are called to treat a case of moral insanity, and by the success of David in calming the jealous spirit of Saul by music, and similar instances of the influence of one mind over the temper or turbulence of another. A.?As, according to Dr Ponza, the blue light invariably ex- ercises a physiological action upon the eye and mind, we natu- rally initiated our experience with the application of this colour in cases of maniacal excitation, reserving our inquiry as to the effects of the violet until we had reached some satisfactory results. Our experimental chamber is upon the ground-floor, faces the south-east, and receives the luminous rays directly and uninterruptedly through squares of blue glass; they are reflected upon walls, and upon a door glazed with glass of the same tint, so that at certain hours the whole apartment is bathed in this colour. In the distance there are large trees, and a village perched on the slopes, so that these objects mingle with the blue of the sky. The first patient subjected to examination suffered under the first stage of general paralysis, and was so excited that restraint in a chair was absolutely necessary. For three hours tranquillity did not follow, the eyelids were closed, and the heat of the body remained unchanged. On the following days the results were likewise negative. The second patient was acutely maniacal, occasionally refusing food, notwithstand- ing moral and physical means to overcome the tendency. We were equally unsuccessful with a number of other patients, and in a marked degree with one labouring under hysteria. The only effect produced on the latter was, that she declared the chamber to be assuredly original. One of our learned confreres is correct in describing the blue light as productive of a strange sort of oppression, added to which there are feelings of giddi- ness, fatigue?short, however, of somnolency, and resembling more weariness and exhaustion. Similar failures were met with in the practice of the Superintendent of Moscow.?Annates Med. Psy., November 1876.
B.?Dr Eorie, Medical Superintendent, Dundee Lunatic Asylum, N.B., writes (p. 22, Annual Report, 1876) as follows ” The only matter worthy of reference in the treatment pursued is, that arrangements have been made to test the value of the system recently recommended by Dr Ponza, of Alexandria, of treating certain forms of insanity by the action of coloured light. The following extract from the British Medical Journal will explain the nature and theory of these investigations. Dr. Ponza’s experiments consisted, in the abstract^ in placing his patients in chambers coloured red, blue, and violet, with most surprising results. In the red room he placed a melancholic man who had refused his food, but who tlnee hours afterwards was found lively and hungry. In the blue cliambei he placed a violent lunatic, who became much quieter within an hour. In a violet room he procured equally good results. Of all the rays of the spectrum the violet are those which possess the most intense electro-chemical rays; whilst the blue, devoid of calo- rific, chemical, or electric rays, are in fact the negative of excitement, and are most useful in calming violent accesses of fury. Two rooms have been recently fitted up, one for the admission of red, and the other of blue light. On two occa- sions marked diminution of excitement was found to lesult from placing a patient in the blue chamber, but as yet the cases submitted to treatment have been too few to warrant a more decided opinion being given. The benefit of placing certain patients in darkened rooms, and thus removing them fiom all sources of excitement and irritation, has been long known. It is not improbable, therefore, that similar, if not more marked benefit, will result from what may be regarded as a more highly developed and a more scientific application of this fact. C.?Dr Eorie, in continuation of this subject, says in a letter dated December 11, “I am not yet inclined to write a paper upon Colouration cure. I find it so difficult to decide how much of the sedative effects may be due to the chromatic influences, and how much to the mere isolation of the patient. Should you be inclined to refer to the subject in any paper or note, however, the following are the general results I have arrived at. The blue room lias unquestionably greater effect in lessening and subduing tlie excitement of patients than dark seclusion?I mean putting a patient to bed and shutting out all light. In some cases this effect appears to arise from astonish- ment, on the part of the patient, at the novel position in which lie finds himself; in others, apparently, from the soothing influence of the light itself. In some cases, patients seized with sudden violent paroxysms of excitement have become quite quiet, and fit to mix with others in ten minutes time.
The last striking case I have had was that of a female pauper patient, who had been in a state of sleeplessness and excitement for a week, and refused food. On admission in the evening, she had some supper and a warm bath, and was put comfortably to bed in the blue room, with the shutters closed. She slept none during the night. In the morning the shutter was thrown back and the blue light admitted, and after a good breakfast of porridge and milk she slept soundly all day. But how much of this was due to the blue light, and how much to the porridge ? In a case of chronic mania benefit resulted at first, but, to a considerable extent failed afterwards, probably from the patient ceasing to be surprised or amused at his surroundings. In another case of chronic mania, with less mental power than the above, no greater benefit resulted than was to be expected from the isolation of the patient. The red room has not been so much used as the other, and has, with one exception, given negative results. This was in the case of a general paralytic, who, instead of being blessed with the usual euthanasia, common to such cases, was dull, whining, and depressed. On his removal to the red room (at first merely as a matter of convenience), he was found to be cheerful and happy, and whenever taken from the room, entreated to be taken back to it, apparently feeling relief and satisfaction in basking, so to speak, in the red rays. Altogether I have been so satisfied with the result, that I have had a blue room fitted up on the female side of the house, as well as the male side. Before any definite opinion can be given, however, I think the experiment will have to be tried on a much larger scale, say fitting up the windows of an ordinary refractory ward, containing from twelve to twenty patients, as in the wards of an Ophthalmic Infirmary.
In addition to the effects of colour, assumed to be thera- peutic, there fall to be noticed what may be called the natural or physiological influence of the same agent on life and growth in a volume addressed to the Philadelphia Agricultural Society in 1876, by General A. J. Peasanton. These have been tested by this inquirer, chiefly in the operation of blue light upon the rearing of vines, poultry, pigs, and sickly children. Electricity is supposed to be the stimulus by which the gigantic and extra- ordinary results recorded are produced. Of the rapidity and extent of such results an opinion may be formed from the statement that the author’s vines grew forty-five feet in five months, and that, planted in 1861, they yielded 1,200 pounds of grapes in 1862 and two tons in 1863. Although these and similar results savour somewhat of the. marvellous and mono- ideastic we understand that the experiment is to be repeated in this country. In order to place the whole subject in harmony, the book is printed in blue ink, and appears in dark blue covers.
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