ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 49, Issue 109, 19 February 1929, Page 7

ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT

TO PREVENT ILLNESS. Mr H Ewart Mitchell, actino-thera-1 pist at the Mauldeth Hospital Manchester, recently gave an address, with demonstrations, on "Artificial Sunlight and its Future" to members. of the National Union of Trade Union Approved Societies, reports the 'Manchester Guardian." Mr Mitchell warned his hearers against some of the extravagant claims that had been made for artificial sun-1 light It was not the most wonderful thin" in the world, neither would it cure-all' the ills that flesh was heir to. In the treatment of rickets it had been a ereat success, and more than useful in cases of tuberculosis. Its greatest use in the future lay in the preventive stages of illnesses. Time would show that ultra-violet rays would secure its •neatest success in matters of hygiene. Everyone living in large cities in England',, as suffering from sunlight starvation. - ~ Recently he went to the top of the Manchester Town Hall tower and found even on a very clear day that he was looking down on a smoke screen. Ultra-violet rays came very close to X-rays. They were chemically active and could reproduce the beneficial effects of sunlight by artificial means. He predicted that in a few years everyone living in a city would become accustomed to regular doses of one or two minutes' treatment, avoiding irritation but benefiting by securing the normal amount of sunlight that he would' receive under smokeless conditions. , . i£ If the scheme of accustoming oneselt to small but regular weekly doses ot artificial sunlight baths was generally adopted they would find that those diseases bred in darkness would largely disappear. He was conducting an experiment at Kendal, Milne's Three hundred members of. the staff had voluntarily submitted to weekly doses of artificial sunlight. Already the majority stated that they were feeling better "for the experience. It was their testimony that they approached their food with a better and a keener appetite, and confessed they were not feelm* quite so tired on n Friday night as they used to do. He was convinced that by next summer the sickness sheet of the staff and the vigour, of salesmanship would show a marked improvement on previous years. Continued good health made for increased happiness, and it was his dream of the future that every factory and every place where men, women, and children congregated would be equipped with artificial sunlight lamps, always, of course, under proper supervision. It was not exactly safe for anyone to use them. They must be used under medical advice or with someone accustomed to handling them Tn five years' time he thought that conference would remember the prophecy he had made.