MUSIC AND MIND.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 8

MUSIC AND MIND.

Some novel methods of treating mental disorders are employed at the Croydon Mental Hospital, England. Dr. Pasmore, who superintends the institution, told an “Express” interviewer that “colour, music, art, and open-air” were the salient points in his system. For instance, almost every woman likes to dress well, therefore a mentally afflicted woman will bo happier, and so on the road to sanity, if she has pretty clothes to wear. The hospital authorities therefore dressed their women patients in bright, wellmade clothes. It is also a rule that men shall wear “cheerful” suits. There are no black coats at Croydon, for black is believed to have a bad effect on the mind. pr. Pasmore became interested in the colour treatment from some experiments made at the Pasteur Institute in Paris as to the effect of colours on animal growth, and as soon as ho took over the Croydon Hospital began to investigate the effect of red, blue, and green on his patients. Those prone to maniacal excitement were, put amid blue surroundings, which had a very calming effect, while red surroundings wore found to improve the condition of sufferers from melancholia. Green tints, which have a depressing effect, and all kinds of patterns, are avoided in planning decorations. Dr. Pasmore finds that music has a remarkable psychological effect, arousing the reasoning faculties of the dullest intellect. Any bright music, especially from musical comedies, has a wonderful effect in “livening up” melancholic patients. “The hospital itself is as unlike the preconceived idea if an a.\dr.n as can be imagined” says the representative of the paper. “In the blue ward all tiie womenfolk sit in a large draw-ing-room decorated almost exclusively in blue. It. is difficult to imagine that people so quiet and contented can bo subject to fits of violence. In the rod ward one sees women of all ages in Scarlet dresses, which, though bold in colours, are obvious triumphs of the dress-maker’s art.” There is a piano in every room, and some of the instruments are always being played, while, the hospital band frequently plays light music. Dr. Pasmore claims as proof of the efficacy of his system, that in cue yas many as •13.38 per cent of female patients and 29.81 per cent of males have been cured.