2.1.23

Blue Devils.

The Living Age 640, 30.8.1856

In an article in the Journal of Psychological Medicine on Baron Feuchtersleben's Principles of Medical Psychology, showing how the mind is influenced by a mechnnical calling, there is this curious sentence: "Rösch and Esquirol affirm from observation that indigo-dyers become melancholy; and those who dye scarlet, choleric. Their observation regarding indigo-dyers affords a strong confirmation of the statement of that arch-quack Paracelsus, who declared blue to be injurious." This would seem to suggest that our phrase, "the blue devils," may derive its origin from a scientific fact.
Chambers' Journal.

Ei kommentteja :