TEE PSYCHOLOGY OF RED. 519 



first place, at all events, is destructive and harmful in a high degree, 

 is now clearly established by the observations and experiments of Char- 

 cot, Unna, Hammer, Bowles and others, while Finsen has made an 

 important advance in the treatment of disease based on this fact. The 

 conditions called 'sun-burn,' 'snow-burn/ 'snow-blindness/ for instance, 

 which may affect even travelers on snow-fields and Arctic explorers, are 

 now known to be wholly due to the violet and not to the red rays. 

 Unna's device of wearing a yellow veil, and Bowles's plan of painting 

 the skin brown, thus shutting off the violet rays, suffice to prevent sun- 

 burn. The same effect is also obtained by nature, which under the 

 stress of sunlight, and largely through the irritation of the violet rays 

 themselves, weaves a pigmentary veil of yellow and brown on the skin, 

 which thus protects from the further injurious influence of the violet 

 rays and renders the sunlight a source of less alloyed joy and health. 



That the presence of the red rays, or at all events the exclusion of 

 the violet, is of great benefit in many skin diseases seems to be now 

 beyond doubt. This has been shown by Finsen in his treatment of 

 smallpox in red rooms; it appears that it was also known in the Middle 

 Ages as well as in Japan, Tonquin and Boumania, red bed-covers, 

 curtains or carpets being used to obtain the effect. Under the treatment 

 by red light not only is the skin enabled to heal healthfully without 

 scarring, but the whole course of the disease is beneficially affected and 

 abbreviated, the fever is diminished and also the risk of complications. 

 Another physician has discovered that a similar beneficial effect is 

 produced by red light in measles. A child with a severe attack of 

 measles was put into a room with red blinds and a photographic lamp. 

 The rash speedily disappeared and the fever subsided, the child com- 

 plaining only of the absence of light; the blinds were consequently 

 removed, and the fever, rash and prostration returned, to disappear 

 again when the blinds were resumed. 



Whether red light, or the exclusion of violet, exerts a beneficial in- 

 fluence on the hemoglobin of the blood and on metabolism generally 

 has not been distinctly proved, but it seems to me to be indicated by 

 such experiments as those of Marti published a few years ago in the 

 Atti del Lincei. This investigator found that while feeble irritation of 

 the skin promotes the formation of blood corpuscles, strong irritation 

 diminishes the blood corpuscles and also the haemoglobin; at the same 

 time he found that darkness also diminishes the number of red 

 corpuscles, while continued exposure to intense light (even at night the 

 electric light, which, however, is rich in violet rays) favors increased 

 formation of red corpuscles, and in some degree of haemoglobin. Fin- 

 sen has shown that inflammation of the skin caused by chemical or violet 

 light leads to contraction of the red corpuscles. 



This brings us to the consideration of the influence of the red rays 



