Color Features

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:

2. “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.”
3. 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.

4. 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.
5. 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.

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.”

3. Gold Thread (Coptis)

Roots of a golden color. “Tonic bitter.”

4. Gentian (Gentiana)

“Yellowish powder.” “Tonic.”

5. 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.

6. Iron

Already described, see III of this chapter.

7. Myrrh (Myrrha)

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

8. Ginger (Zingiber)

“Yellowish brown.” “A powerful stimulant.”

9. 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.”

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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

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.”

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

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

“Antacid, alkaline, and diuretic.”

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

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

“Refrigerant diaphoretic.”

4. Sassafras Oil (Oleum Sassafras)

“Yellowish, becoming reddish by age.”

“A mild diaphoretic.”

5. 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.”

6. 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.”

7. Oil of Savine (Oleum Sabinæ C10H8)

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

“Is stimulant, emmenagogue, and actively rubefacient.”

8. 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.”

Podophylhtm or May Apple. “Yellowish green petioles.” “The fruit is lemon yellow, diversified by brownish spots.” “The powder is light yellowish gray.” “An active and certain cathartic. In some cases it has given rise to nausea and vomiting.” “A hydragogue and cholagogue.” The office of a cholagogue is to cause a flow of bile, which is of itself a yellow or yellow green fluid that has a laxative effect as it passes into the duodenum and lower bowels.

1. Senna, (Cassia Marilandica). “Flowers beautiful golden yellow; the calyx is composed of five oval yellow leaves; the stamens are ten, with yellow filaments and brown anthers.” “An efficient and safe cathartic.”
2. Colocynth (colocynthis). “Flowers are yellow.” “Fruit yellow when ripe.” “Contains a white spongy medullary matter.” “A powerful hydragogue cathartic.” “stimulant, diuretic, laxative.”
3. Gluten, phosphate of lime, etc., which constitute the hard yellow portion of grains near the external portion, are somewhat laxative.
4. Figs (Ficus). “The best are yellowish or brownish.” “Figs are nutritious, laxative and demulcent.”
5. Magnesia (MgO). The yellow-green principle strongest in the spectrum of magnesium. “Antacid and laxative.”
6. Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO3). The yellow strong in both carbon and magnesium. “Laxative.”
7. Castor Oil (Oleum Ricini). “Yellowish.” “A mild cathartic.”
8. Olive Oil (Oleum Olivæ). “Pale yellow or greenish yellow.” “Nutritious and mildly laxative, given in case of irritable intestines.”
9. Sulphur is “pale yellow * * laxative, diaphoretic,” etc.
10. Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom salt, MgSO4), has the strong yellow principle of magnesium and sulphur, but is toned down by the cool blue of oxygen, so it is called “a mild and safe cathartic,” a “refrigerant,” etc.
11. Eggs (Ovum). “The yolk in its raw state is thought to be laxative.”
12. Prunes (Prunum). Yellowish brown or orange brown. “Laxative and nourishing.”
13. Peaches have a yellowish pulp. Gently laxative.
14. Cape Aloes (Aloe). “Powder greenish yellow.” “Cathartic.”
15. Many more similar examples could be given, but these are quite sufficient to establish the potency of yellow as connected with the nerves of the bowels. I will quote the following, however, to show that when we appeal more to the red principle with drugs we reach the coarser elements of blood and thus produce a more severe and drastic effect than when dealing more exclusively with the finer elements of the nerves:—
16. Gamboge when broken “is of a uniform reddish orange, which becomes a beautiful bright yellow.” “Gamboge is a powerful drastic hydragogue cathartic, very apt to produce nausea and vomiting, when given in the full dose.”
17. Black Hellebore (Helleborus niger). “The flower stem is reddish toward the base,” has “rose like flowers.” The petals are of a white or pale rose color with occasionally a greenish tinge.” The root is “externally, black or deep brown, internally white or yellowish white, producing on the tongue a burning and benumbing expression, like that which results from taking hot liquids into the mouth.” “Black Hellebore is a drastic hydragogue cathartic possessed also of emmenagogue powers. The fresh root applied to the skin produces inflammation and even vesication.” A good example of the burning qualities of black and red.
18. Croton Oil (Oleum Tiglii), “varies from a pale yellow to a dark reddish brown. Its taste is hot and acrid—it is a powerful hydragogue cathartic, in large doses apt to excite vomiting and severe pain.”
19. Senna (Cassia acutifolia, etc.). “The leaflets are yellowish green color, the flowers are yellow, the fruit grayish brown.” “The infusion is of a deep reddish brown color. When exposed to the air a short time, it deposits a yellowish insoluble precipitate. It is a prompt and safe purgative. An objection sometimes urged against it is that it is apt to produce severe griping pain.”
20. Rhubarb (Rheum). “Good rhubarb is yellow, with a slight reddish brown tinge;”—”unites a cathartic with an astringent power, the latter of which does not interfere with the former, as the purgative effect precedes the astringent; * * appears to affect the muscular fibres more than the secretory vessels. It sometimes occasions griping pains in the bowels.”

Why it is that a substance like potassium tartrate, and other saline substances may have the rubific element of potassium, and yet be but a “mild refrigerant cathartic,” is easily explained by noticing the amount of oxygen (C4H4K2O6) which moderates and cools the thermal and expansive qualities of the other substances, and acts somewhat as it does in acids. It seems that the text is listing various substances that have laxative or purgative properties, and highlighting the role of the color yellow in their composition and effects. The author is also noting that when the red principle is more prominent, the substances tend to have a more drastic and severe effect on the body.

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1. Indian Hemp (Apocynum Cannabinum). The root is of a yellowish brown while young, but dark chestnut (red brown) when old, with a nauseous acrid taste. “The internal ligneous part is yellowish white.” “Powerfully emetic and cathartic, sometimes diuretic.”

2. Lobclina. “The active principle of lobelia is a yellowish liquid.” “Lobelia is emetic, occasionally cathartic, diaphoretic,” etc.

3. Tartar Emetic (KSbC4H4O7, H2O), “a white crystalline salt,” with the yellow, orange and red all strongly developed in the spectra of its elements. “According to the dose it acts variously as a diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, purgative and emetic.”

4. Bloodroot (sanguinaria). “The whole plant is pervaded by an orange-colored sap. The color of the powder is brownish red.” The leaf “is yellowish green on the upper surface, paler or glaucous on the under, and strongly marked by orange-colored veins.” “Sanguinaria is an acrid emetic, with stimulant and narcotic powers.”

5. The fact that emetics deal so much in the red as well as in the yellow principle shows that they act more or less upon the blood and muscular tissues as well as the nerves. “The action of an emetic is directly or indirectly upon the nerve centres that supply these muscles. * * All emetics acting through the blood produce more or less depression.” (Hartshorne). Emetics act principally upon the pneumogastric nerve.

We have seen in the last chapter (XIX, 3) the law by which the nerves become stimulated, more especially by the yellow color, and to some extent by the orange and even the red, these principles being included in the substance of the nerves themselves. We have seen that the more violent nerve stimuli include something of the red or orange as well as the yellow, that drugs taken internally, when sufficiently active and exciting and working, no doubt, to some extent upon the vascular as well as the nervous tissues of the stomach, cause that quick repulsive action which is termed EMETIC; that those drugs whose yellow principle works somewhat more slowly, do not exert their expansive and repulsive action until they reach the bowels and thus constitute LAXATIVES, or when sufficiently active, PURGATIVES; that certain drugs which have an affinity for the liver and bile, causing them to act, are called CHOLAGOGUES; that those which stimulate the kidneys are called DIURETICS; those which stimulate the uterus, from some special affinity they may have for that organ, are called EMMENAGOGUES; those which stimulate the nerves of the skin and to some extent the vascular glands in a way to cause perspiration are called DIAPHORETICS; those which stimulate the nerves of the skin and call the blood outward until the surface becomes reddened are called RUBEFACIENTS. In all cases yellow is the central principle of nerve stimulus as well as the exciting principle of the brain which is the fountain head of the nerves, although, as we have seen, the more violent elements of stimulus approach the red, especially where vascular action is called forth. Those elements which act more directly to excite the brain, are called CEREBRAL STIMULANTS. I will give a few examples of the different drugs and foods which belong to the various departments of nerve action.

1. Red is injurious, of course, when there is already too much of the red, or inflammatory condition of the system, such as the predominance of red hair, very rubicund countenance, or feverish and excitable condition generally.

Iron, the preparations of which abound in the red, is “contra-indicated in inflammatory diseases, producing, when injudiciously employed, heat, thirst, head-ache, difficulty of breathing and other symptoms of an excited circulation;” “contra-indicated in the sanguine temperament generally.”

2. The same is true of the other red elements, or of elements in which red abounds in the spectrum, but the principle is too obvious to need further examples. The exciting effect of red objects on various animals is also well known. That red light has exactly the same exciting effect is well known. I quote the following from a letter of a thoughtful observer, Edwin M. Hale, M. D., to the Chicago Tribune:
3. “In one of the French Insane Asylums, not only the blue ray but others were tried, and the effect was very interesting. The red ray caused results which confirmed the popular belief in its exciting, maddening, influence. When violent and maniacal patients were placed in rooms where the red ray predominated, they became worse. All the violent symptoms were aggravated. If these patients were removed to a room where the blue ray predominated, they became calm and quiet. It is related that one patient, a woman, whose delirium was greatly aggravated by the red ray, immediately said on going into the blue room—’how soothing that is,’ and shortly after, when left alone, fell asleep.”
4. Thermel must naturally produce an effect somewhat similar to that of red, so far as its heating qualities are concerned, but being invisible cannot, of course, affect one through the optic nerve.
5. Dr. Pancoast speaking of the red light says that “if employed to excess, as to amount or time, the red light over-excites the nervous system and may produce dangerous fevers or other disorders that may prove as troublesome as the evil we are seeking to correct. We seldom employ red light to the exclusion of the other rays, and it should never be so employed, except in extreme cases, when prompt action is the first consideration.”

The danger of the above “exclusive red light,” which Dr. Pancoast deems so great as to require “a skilful physician,” may be averted by using the red glass only a few minutes at a time at first, taking the precaution when the system becomes too hot, to put blue glass in its place, or a wet bandage over the head. For general cases, however, it would be better to have blue glass over the head and red and clear glass over the rest of the body in conditions of lethargy. A better arrangement still is the instrument devised by the author called the CHROMOLUME, in which both physiological and chemical laws are complied with in the harmonic arrangement of glass. See explanation in XXIII and XXIV of this chapter.