Light Therapy

            People tend to believe a cure is working if they feel its affect.  Just like the healing power of electricity could be felt, the healing power of colored light could be seen.  One of the earliest colored light crazes was in the 1870s.  A company finding itself with a surplus of blue glass tried to pass it off as a medical cure.  A salesman had the good fortune of connecting with a Civil War general with chronic pain from his war injuries.  After allowing blue light to shine on his wounds for several hours a day the generals pains began to fade.  The news of the general’s cure spread and demand for their blue glass skyrocketed.  Eventually news got out that it was not as good as had originally been touted and the company faded into obscurity.

            Out of this initial foray into colored light therapy came the Spectro-Chrome Therapy of Dinshah Ghadiali.  His device consisted of a box with a 1000 watt light bulb which projected through a series of colored glass or plastic.  The patient would sit nude in front of the box and absorb the appropriate colored light for his illness.  His theory was that humans are primarily composed of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon which give off blue, red, green and yellow light respectively.  When we are healthy these colors are in balance.  During sickness they are out of balance and we need to supplement the colors that are lacking and reduce the colors that are in abundance.  The guidelines explained that red was a liver and hemoglobin builder, violet a cardiac depressant, orange an emetic, scarlet a genital excitant and so on.  By 1940 he had made over a million dollars.  Finally in 1944 the FDA seized his equipment and put him on probation.

            In the early 1900s a new fad of colored lights moved to the forefront – violet rays.  The violet ray is a hand-held device fitted with various oddly-shaped glass ends which when plugged in would give off a neon violet glow.  These glass ends were made to reach the appropriate affected area in the best possible way.  Mushroom ends were for the face to remove pimples and acne and arms, stomach and backs to cure back aches, neuritis, anemia, and kidney problems; rakes were to make hair grow; semicircles to cure goiter; small rods to cure earaches and deafness; nasal prongs for hay fever, bronchitis and asthma; and larger diameter rods for various vaginal and rectal maladies.  The violet ray manufacturers claim they work by causing an actinic action on tissues (meaning they exert a chemical activity) and by generating ozone which is a concentrated form of oxygen and, therefore, must be beneficial.   They claimed to bring fresh “mountain air” to your home in the form of ozone.  By the 1930s many of the companies had stopped referring to the violet rays as cure-alls and manufactured them solely as beauty products before they eventually fell into disfavor.

            The last three articles have shown a brief look into the world of medical quackery.  Last year Minneapolis and the country lost a great repository of this history when the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices closed its doors.  The proprietor, Bob McCoy, a friendly and enthusiastic teacher, helped spur my interest in this subject when he spent 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon giving me a detailed tour of his collection.  Fortunately much of his wonderful collection can still be seen in the Science Museum of Minnesota.