Volume 10, Issue 2, page 6

The Magic Power in Color
By DOROTHY SPRINGFIELD
COLOR, AND its role in the field of
healing, began absorbing my interest
some years back while I was in the
field of nursing. I noticed that the
stark white walls of hospitals, the
white uniforms of the nurses, and
the white jackets effected by doctors, surprisingly were retarding
recovery -- especially of patients in
the mental wards. How serious this
devitalizing was could be noticed greatly
during visiting hours, when visitors wearing brightly-colored clothing called for a
patient, or merely appeared in the ward.
It was almost like a "healing ray", and
there was an immediate perking up, or
rise in tone, in many as they were accidentally exposed to these colors.

Also, it was noticed that when mealtimes
arrived, these same patients would reach out
first for the green of a fresh vegetable, or
some dish that was cheerfully yellow, even tho
these patients might not care, taste-wise, for
these same vegetables. Apparently, it was the
color that attracted them. Should the dessert
be gelatin, mixed with fruits, they would leave
on their plates the white of an apple, but
would finish all that had color. Then, in a
better mood, they would attack the meat dish --
with red meat having an especial appeal. In
the mental ward, chicken would more than likely
be left barely touched.

Some patients who were not too ill, or just
this side of a mental condition, would first
go for the color in the foods, but would finish
what was put before them.

Persons on the anemic side -- while in the
hospital and even after discharge-