248 THE INFLUENCE OF LIGHT ON LIFE. 



freely upon them, and that the noted absence of deformity is also 

 in some measure due to the same cause. Although many causes 

 may, no doubt, assist in such results, yet light is supposed to play 

 an important part. It has been proved by experiments that when 

 infants are kept in the dark their temperature is decreased, and 

 this must affect their growth. If we wish to find ill-formed bodies 

 we shall more surely come across them in narrow, dark streets and 

 confined situations than amongst the individuals of a nomadic 

 tribe, who spend their existence in the open air. If light, there- 

 fore, has an influence on a healthy body, we should reason correctly 

 if we concluded that it has also an influence on an unhealthy body. 



Dr. Carpenter quotes the report of a medical gentleman, who 

 observed that in a large barracks at St. Petersburg the cases of 

 disease were three times as numerous on the dark side of the 

 building as they were on the light side ; and, further, he tells us 

 that it has been found that, in a certain London hospital, residence 

 in the wards which looked south was much more conducive to the 

 welfare of the patients than residence in the wards which looked 

 north. 



I read some time ago that Insanity had been treated by taking 

 advantage of the influence of light, and after enquiry in a reliable 

 quarter was obliged with the following information : — " Dr. Pritchard 

 Davies, who has made experiments on the photo-chromatic treat- 

 ment of Insanity, has expressed his opinion as follows : — * Failures 

 are very many and far outnumber the cures. The list of those 

 upon whom it had no effect whatever is a very long one, and in 

 many the improvement was but slight. Still, I am convinced that 

 it has materially benefited some, and those not slight cases, but 

 cases which had resisted other treatment and given great trouble.' 

 Dr. Davies believes that it is most beneficial in hysteria, moral 

 insanity, acute mania, and even in cases where, though the disease 

 is of long standing, there are lucid intervals. The experiments 

 were made in the blue room." It appears that the system consists, 

 so far as I can make out, in keeping the patients in a room in 

 which all the light is of a certain colour. Though the result is not 

 very satisfactory, yet it is sufficient for our present purpose, as it 

 shows us that this light treatment has some effect, and it hints to 

 us that it may be possible, if only the right key could be found as 



