Edwin Babbit

Accordingly Babbit prescribed red for paralysis, consumption, physical exhaustion and chronic rheumatism; yellow as a laxative, emetic and purgative and for bronchial difficulties; and blue for inflammatory conditions, sciatica, meningitis, nervous headache, irritability and sunstroke. He developed various devices, including a special cabinet called the Thermolume that used coloured glass and natural light to produce coloured light; and the Chromo Disk, a funnel-shaped device fitted with special colour filters that could localise light onto various parts of the body.

In the nineteenth century the American Edwin Babbit advanced a comprehensive theory of healing with colour. He identified the colour red as a stimulant, notably of blood and to a lesser extent the nerves; yellow and orange as nerve stimulants; and blue and violet as soothing to all systems, with anti-inflammatory properties.