The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1910. CURING DISEASE BY MUSIC AND COLOUR.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 781, 2 April 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1910. CURING DISEASE BY MUSIC AND COLOUR.

The soothing effect upon nervous individuals of some particular colours and also of certain music has been taken by a writer' in Lα Revue, ■ Paris,, as the basis of a series of articles on the cure of disease by music and colour. It is recognised as an accepted fact that some people are more susceptible to the effects of colour and music 'than others, and the writer of the. articles contends that the scientist, and educator of the■ future, by, means of apparatus of a simple nature, will/prescribe methods.of treatment and courses of study for such persons far; in advanoe of those of the present daj. In ineurasthenia, or. nervous prostration, the! effect of chromotherapy, as the coloured-light treatment is called, is said to be especially encouraging when the light is applied progressjveiy.r.and without -.abrupt change. . The light must be of.the colour favourable. to. counteraction of.the disease'to be treated;and as excess of-,: light augments- - neurasthenia',, care must be tajcen to control the force of the 'rays. The effect, of. different colours is said to be very remarkable. Red, for instance, according ,to the- writer of the articles under' consideration, is an excitant. Orange and- yellow excite in a. much less degree. 'Violet, indigo, and blue are of the calming effect. Green is said to convey tranquil; joy—a sense of peace. Deschamps,' tho French student and scientist, in the course of his observations,-, learned, that the- first effect of an increase of light is to augment the activity of. the subject, but that the nervous' system is affected almost at once. Blondes are more , affected by light and colour than . brunettes.- . Neurasthenics ought to avoid bright-coloured lights in their living'rooms—curtains, and wall hangings should bo of calming or otherwise favourable colours. Deschamps declares that experiments have proved that fits of impatience , or of melancholia may be singularly moderated, if not wholly corrected, by accommodating the wall paper and hangings of the living rooms' of sufferers from. nervous disorders to the temperaments, of the,subjects. While colour haß the effect men.tioned in a certain proportion of cases,, music also, exercises .an important influence. It is undeniable, says the writer, in Lα Bevue, that there are many more who are moved by the influence of music than who 1 are sensible to. the beauty of colour, or- than are capable of telling the difference in shades of colour. And yet the effect of colour is more generally shown on the nerves of nervous people than the effect of music. "Why," it is asked, - "is this so? Among visitors to museums few are stirred to real feeling by a picture. Yet the same colours seen,in the picture may have a direct; physical influence on the one who is apparently least moved by the picture containing them. But old and young alike are thrilled by the passing trumpet or the drum." It would seem that colour is _ more subtle in its effect than music; but music, like colour, may some day be used as a 1 medical means of curing eiokness. To quote Lα Bevue:

The brain receives tho 6onnd of music, and the nervous system gets immediate relief from tho perpetual noise, or combination of noises, which incessantly bejioges it in Nature, .and.the. sensation or Impression of relief becomes sentiment oifeeling. The master work of musio is to relievo tho mind, boind down .by the weight of ari atmosphere saturated with noise; and in this, the day of an excess of noises, scionco plans music among - tho recognised eurativo agents and calls it nmsicotheripy, 'as it calls colour, the othor powerful natural agent, chromotherapy. . A Dutch savant, Van EiEimiiET, is stated to bave made recent experiments which give a practical application to the theories covering sight and hearing. Van Bieevmet believes that the'most complex mental operations may be traced to methods of reasoning whose results depend upon the good action and tho delicacy of tho norvous system. He holds that sight, the sense signally affected by colours; and hearing, the sense signally affected by music, arc the senses furnishing most nourishment to the. intellectual faculties. Experiments made simultaneously upon a dozen people chosen haphazard from a public audience showed that the most, intelligent, generally speaking, were tho people who made best use of their ojas aad ears.