CASE — WHEN YELLOW IS INJURIOUS – Edwin Babbitt

1. Yellow is injurious and over exciting to a system which have a nervous condition that is already very active and perhaps irritable. Dormant, paralytic, costive, cold, chronic, and stupid conditions, inert tumors, etc., are greatly relieved by the yellow principle, aided by the red principle. However, in fevers, acute inflammations, delirium, diarrhea, neuralgia, palpitation of the heart, and over-excitement of any kind, it is evident that these colors are contraindicated.

I will quote briefly again from Dr. Hale:

  1. “Green is a quieting color, if not too green. A dark green is like a dark blue, it seems to lose its calmative power. Nor must the green have a suggestion of yellow in it, for yellow, like red, irritates the nerves of the insane. I have had patients who begged to have the yellow shades removed from the windows, it irritated them so. In the asylum to which I have alluded, there were a number of patients afflicted with melancholy. Some of them were placed in the blue rooms, others in the green. In both instances, their malady seemed aggravated, or at least not benefited. They complained that the yellow made them feel badly. They became morose. All were benefited, however, by being placed in the red room, or in rooms lighted by ultra-violet rays. The extreme violet rays, which some would call purple, are very stimulating to the nervous system. Children become exceedingly nervous from the bright sunlight, containing an excess of red and yellow rays. When ill from teething, from fever, and especially when the brain is affected, they seem to be soothed by a pale blue, or gray light.”
  2. These remarks show a thoughtful study of the subject on the part of Dr. Hale, but should be modified slightly to prevent readers from being misled. Dark green and dark blue are spoken of as not being calmative in their nature. The doctor is evidently speaking of those persons who are melancholy and are already overstocked with the blue venous blood. To such ones, these colors would simply be adding sombreness to sombreness, and of course, they would not calm them. All the electrical colors must be more or less calmative to an excited human system, as will be shown hereafter. All the circumstances with reference to the inmates of the asylum show that their melancholy was due to a considerable extent to an excess of venous blood, from their repugnance to blue, and to an excess of nervous sensibility from their being injured by the yellow. Whenever they were under the chemical affinity of the yellow, namely the violet, they were benefited, not because the ultra-violet is stimulating to the nerves, as the doctor supposes, but just the contrary as already shown (Chap. Fifth, XX, 18). Their nerves were already over-excitable. A red purple is stimulating, especially to the blood. The stimulus which they most needed was in the red to offset the excess of blue in the veins, and this is the reason that the red was so useful to them.My own experience has shown me that persons with the erysipelas or an excitable nervous condition cannot endure much of the strong sunlight without harm. The red, orange, and yellow rays prove too exciting for them.

    A lady patient who inherited something of an erysipelatous condition, and was also neuralgic and otherwise excitable until she had spells of insanity, always became worse after taking baths of white light and found even blue and white light too exciting for her. Blue glass was far more soothing, but the glass which she used, being mazarine, admitted so many of the other more exciting rays, that she could not use that very long at a time without feeling their exciting effect. I advised two thicknesses of the blue and the exclusion of all other rays.

  3. One great reason why yellow rules in the most violent of poisons, such as Prussic acid and strychnine, is because of the prominence of the yellow principle as a stimulus of the nerves combined with the red principle as a stimulus of the blood. Thus, strychnine, according to Liebig, is composed as follows: N2C44H23O4, which shows a decided predominance of the yellow principle in the carbon, much power of the red in the hydrogen, and not enough of the electrical oxygen to balance the irritating and fiery action of these thermal elements. “Next to Prussic acid, strychnine is perhaps the most violent poison in the catalogue of medicines.” Prussic acid is constituted as follows: CNH, which gives great power of the yellow principle in carbon, and even in nitrogen, predominating red in the hydrogen and no decided electrical element to balance all this thermism, although the nitrogen may be considered slightly more electrical than it is thermal when in combination. “Strichnine acts especially as an excitor of the motor filaments of the spiral cord, causing tonic muscular contractions.” “Hydrocyanic (prussic) acid, in poisonous doses, acts conjointly on the cerebrum and spinal cord. All the animals I have seen killed by this agent, utter a scream, lose their consciousness and are convulsed. These are the symptoms of epilepsy. * * * The phenomena of epilepsy are eminently congestive. While the cerebral functions are for the time annihilated, the spinal ones are violently excited.” (Bennett.) When prussic acid is taken in large amounts, the patient may fall almost as if struck by lightning.
  4. The yellow principle, then, being so powerful in its action on the nerves, we may easily understand why large doses of yellow drugs are said to cause convulsions, delirium, vomiting, drastic purging, etc. Even so mild a substance as coffee, with its yellow-brown principle, is said to be “contra-indicated in acute inflammatory affections,” causing “nervous excitement” and a “disposition to wakefulness.” Of dandelion, it is said that “an irritable condition of the stomach and bowels, and the existence of acute inflammation centra-indicate its employment.” Other even more active drugs with yellow, and especially with yellow and orange, or yellow and red potencies predominant, such as mercury, jalap, opium, alcohol, etc., must be still more disastrous to a sensitive nervous or sanguine system, especially when taken in large amounts. Coffee, though yellowish-brown and laxative in some of its elements, has an astringent principle in its tannin. Those who wish to escape some of the worst effects of coffee should not let it steep more than five to ten minutes, when the coffee grounds should be removed from the liquid to prevent the tannin from escaping into it. Under such circumstances, I have found coffee to be more laxative than otherwise.

CASE — TONICS: — YELLOW AND RED PREDOMINANT – Edwin Babbitt

  1. Tonics are substances which gently and persistently stimulate and invigorate the human system, especially the nutritive and blood-making functions. I have already given several of them in the preceding matter and will mention but a few here. Some of the best tonics have a fair share of the electrical colors also. Vegetable tonics are generally bitter and appetizing. Quinine and Iron are called the most important tonics.
  2. Quassia

Yellowish, flowers sometimes red. “Highly tonic.”

  1. Gold Thread (Coptis)

Roots of a golden color. “Tonic bitter.”

  1. Gentian (Gentiana)

“Yellowish powder.” “Tonic.”

  1. Peruvian Bark (Cinchona)

Pale, yellow, and red varieties. “Excites warmth in the epigastrium,” etc. “Nausea and vomiting,” also “purging” sometimes caused. “Frequency of the pulse is increased.” Its action upon the nervous system is often evinced by a sense of tension, or fullness, or slight pain in the head, singing in the ears, and partial deafness.” Its most important extract is Quinine or Quinia, whose component parts are as follows, NC20H12O2.

  1. Iron

Already described, see III of this chapter.

  1. Myrrh (Myrrha)

“Reddish yellow or reddish brown.” “Tonic and stimulating, with a tendency to the lungs and uterus.”

  1. Ginger (Zingiber)

“Yellowish brown.” “A powerful stimulant.”

  1. Black Pepper (Piper Nigrum)

“Piperin, the active principle of pepper, is in transparent crystals—as ordinarily procured it is yellow.” Formula of piperin, according to Wertheim, N2C70H37O10. “Black pepper is a warm, carminative stimulant, capable of producing general arterial excitement.”

CASE — CEREBRAL STIMULANTS: — YELLOW WITH SOME RED AND ORANGE – Edwin Babbitt

1. Opium is “reddish brown or deep fawn—when pulverized, a Yellow-brown powder. Opium is a stimulant narcotic; it increases the force, fullness, and frequency of the pulse, animates the spirits, and gives new energy to the intellectual faculties. Its operation is directed with peculiar force to the brain, the functions of which it excites even to intoxication or delirium.

After this comes the reaction in the form of sleep, then “nausea, headache, tremors—all the secretions, with the exception of that from the skin, are either suspended or diminished; the peristaltic action of the bowels is lessened,” etc.

  1. Saffron (Crocus)

Has a rich deep orange color. “In small doses it exhilarates the spirits and produces sleep; in large doses it gives rise to headache, intoxication, delirium, etc.

  1. Valerian (Valeriana)

The powder is yellowish gray. It is gently stimulant with an especial direction to the nervous system. In large doses it produces a sense of heaviness, pain in the head,” etc.

  1. Ether

Is a colorless fluid, but strong in the yellow principle of carbon and the red principle of hydrogen (C4H10O). “Ether is a powerful diffusible stimulant, possessed also of expectorant, antispasmodic, and narcotic properties.” “Its effects are increased arterial action with delirium and diminished sensibility, followed by unconsciousness,” etc.

  1. Water, charged with yellow and some red light through a yellow chromo lens, is stimulating to the brain and nerves, as signified in IX of this chapter, and leaves no bad after effects, as is the case with drugs.

CASE — YELLOW AIDED BY A CONSIDERABLE RED – Edwin Babbitt

Several of these have already been given. A few more will suffice to settle the principle.

  1. Dandelion (Taraxacum)

“It has a golden yellow flower. The fresh, full-grown root is of a light brown color externally, whitish within, having a yellowish ligneous cord running through its center. Taraxacum is slightly tonic, diuretic, and aperient; and it is thought to have a specific action upon the liver.”

  1. Pure Carbonate of Potassium (CO3K2. 2xH2O)

Red and yellow principle modified by the blue in the spectrum.

“Antacid, alkaline, and diuretic.”

  1. Potassium Nitrate (Salt Petre, NO3K or NO2 (OK)

The red, yellow, and blue principles all strong in the spectrum.

“Refrigerant diaphoretic.”

  1. Sassafras Oil (Oleum Sassafras)

“Yellowish, becoming reddish by age.”

“A mild diaphoretic.”

  1. Seneka (Senega)

“Externally brownish, internally yellowish.”

“An active, stimulating expectorant, acting in overdoses like squill, as a harsh emetic, and also having some tendency towards the kidneys.”

  1. Buchu (Leaves of Barosma)

“Brownish yellow,” etc.

“Gently stimulant, with a particular tendency to the urinary organs, producing diuresis, and like all similar medicines, exciting diaphoresis when circumstances favor this mode of action.”

  1. Oil of Savine (Oleum Sabinæ C10H8)

“Colorless or yellow,” has also the red principle of hydrogen,

“Is stimulant, emmenagogue, and actively rubefacient.”

  1. Mustard (Sinapis)

“Black mustard seeds are of a deep brown color, slightly rugose on the surface, and internally yellow. White mustard seeds are of a yellowish color and less pungent taste.”

“Mustard seeds act as a gentle laxative.” Its powder made into a poultice, or sinapism, “is an excellent rubefacient.”

CASE — COSTIVENESS AND HEMORRHOIDS – Edwin Babbitt

Mrs. C. A. von Cort, of New York, author of “Household Treasure and Medical Adviser,” and a lady of considerable medical experience, received from me a bottle of sugar of milk which I had charged with yellow-orange light, and the usual dose of which was an amount as large as one to three peas.

Concerning its effects she wrote me the following letter, speaking of her experience in giving it to Mrs. VanKeuren, of Morrisania, and enclosing a note from the latter:

“Mrs. VanKeuren has suffered with hemorrhoids so severely that all ordinary purgatives which her physicians have given her cause intense pain, and prove very prostrating. Your medicine charged with the yellow light is elegant, and works gently and admirably.” — C. A. VON CORT.

The following is Mrs. Van Keuren’s letter:

“Mrs. von Cort:—Please tell the doctor that the medicine you gave me has had the desired effect. The first needed a little assistance, the last one after 24 hours relieved me without help almost free from pain. I feel easier to-night than I have been for months.”

The first dose was doubtless too small, on account of her great costiveness. In severe cases it would be well to take two to four teaspoonfuls of charged water before each meal, until the bowels move, or even every hour in an emergency. The water can be charged somewhat in a few minutes of bright sunlight, but I allow my lenses to lie out of doors on the window ledge where the light can strike them constantly, meantime putting in fresh water every two or three days in hot weather to keep it pure.

I have tested the power of water charged in these yellow-orange lenses in a great number of cases, and uniformly with the same effect, excepting with two or three persons whose bowels were already in a positive and active condition. With these no change was discovered. I also had a patient whose bowels were so very much constricted as to resist all ordinary medicine, and which resisted a single dose or two of the charged yellow water, but I feel confident that if the water had been taken hourly the proper result would have been accomplished during the day.

I use deep blue lenses for water to check diarrhœa, or inflammation, or sleeplessness, as will be seen hereafter. I have also a few purple lenses in which I charge water for indigestion, although I may not be able to supply the public yet, excepting a few physicians, to whom it is highly important, as their manufacture for a small number is troublesome.

The above examples, and all of my experience with the yellow-charged water, or blue-charged water, go to prove the gentle, safe and enduring effect of these refined elements, and their influence on the mind, in harmony with principle XV of Chapter First, and the reason of this deep and radical influence is that they deal directly with the nerve-forces which lie at the seat of power, instead of the blood, or muscles, or other subsidiary functions, and that, too, without clogging the system with coarse and poisonous elements, such as is too commonly done with drugs.

CASE — Do – Edwin Babbitt

A lady of East Tennessee, who had suffered with constipation and feeble health for many years, was advised to drink water charged in yellow bottles. She wrote me that she was drinking water charged in yellow wine bottles, and asked me to send her bottles of the right shade of color, remarking as follows: “My bowels have been acted upon now five successive days. I am so delighted that I can scarcely wait the intervening time before receiving yours.” I had not then got my yellow chromo lenses ready, and so had to recommend the poor substitute of yellow bottles.

CASE — ANIMATING AND LAXATIVE EFFECT of Do – Edwin Babbitt

The following letter from Mr. E. Norris, Artist, 59 Columbia St., Albany, N. Y., will explain itself: — “Dr. Babbitt: My Dear Sir:—I have tried the novel experiment of the yellow light and have been astonished at the results. I have found water charged with the sun’s rays through yellow glass to be an absolute and to me unfailing cathartic; in small doses a gentle laxative, and in all cases exhilaration to the spirits. What its qualities are beyond these effects I do not know, but this much seems certain and it is marvelous. To me it is a great blessing, and I shall remember you with kind feelings. I am quite well, made, and kept so, by the yellow light.”

CASE — COSTIVENESS CURED BY CHARGED WATER, etc – Edwin Babbitt

Knowing as I did the power of the yellow and orange light to act upon the system directly, I concluded at once that it must have the power of so charging other substances that they would act upon the system in the same way, and as ordinary lamp light and gas light abound in the yellow-orange principle of carbon, etc., I was confident that they might be used with yellow glass to good advantage.
Having been costive for a few days I held a small half-ounce amber colored vial of water close to a kerosene lamp for 7 minutes, before retiring, and then drank it. In the morning I had two gentle passages without any pain, and for weeks experienced no return of costiveness. This is a good example to show the enduring character of the cures wrought by the finer elements.

CASE — BRONCHIAL DIFFICULT – Edwin Babbitt

In a case of Chronic bronchial irritation, I used the chromo-disc over the breast, straining a hot sunlight thus concentrated by reflection, through yellow glass. In less than a minute I was able to rubricate the skin. I used it about 15 or 20 minutes each day for several days. The patient felt uncommonly animated and clear in his mental perceptions, and his bronchial difficulties gradually decreased. The same result would, of course, be produced by means of yellow glass without the chromo-disc, by taking a longer time, or even by hot sunlight, by taking a still longer time. The Chromo Lens to be hereafter described is entirely unequalled in the rapidity and power of its action.

CASE — COSTIVENESS – Edwin Babbitt

In a case of costiveness at my office, during the month of June, I let the sunlight pass through some yellow-orange glass of a hue which is usually termed yellow, and over which I had placed a lens to concentrate the rays the better at certain points. I gradually moved the focus of the yellow light over the whole bowels but especially over the descending colon on the left lower side. Commencing at 2 P.M., I continued the process for 10 minutes. The perspiration was started over the whole body, although the thermometer stood at only 70° F. In 5 minutes after receiving the light, the bowels commenced the rattling motion similar to what is experienced with physic, and in 18 minutes a gentle passage was caused, and that wholly without pain. Some persons would require 2 or 3 times as long an application as the above. I have caused the same results with the chromo-disc to be described hereafter. Any deep yellow glass would act in the same way, but the yellow-orange hollow lens which the author has devised is more prompt and effective than any other instrument, and charges the water within for internal use while it is being used externally.