THE GREATEST STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 199, 24 August 1925, Page 5

THE GREATEST STORY.

IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE. LIGHT DOCTOR'S MESSAGE. HEALTH AND HEALING. During the past week London has been listening to the greatest story which science has ever told, writes a ; student of medicine in the "London i Sunday News." 1 mean the story of thr healinjr rays which are now, very quickly, iaking the place of many of the old-time medicines, and which. 1 think, are destined more and more to become the doctors" chief weapon?. The great story was told by some of the foremost radiologists, sis those who handle tlie new weapons are . called, in the world. I They told 01 the rays of radium, called tlie gamma rays, of X-rays, of violet ray?, of the suniight itself, and of the "dark rays, - ' which ordinary folk call heat. And they pointed out that all these rays are "blood relations." of ore another- members, as it were, of the same family, or. tf f you prefer it. i notes in the same scale. I The Scale of Rays. i Like the scale in music, the "ray scale begins with high-pitched notes. notes of <|iiick vibration, and descends ito low-pitched notes of slow vibration. The very highest note of all is the ! radium ray: next to it comes the X-ray, ■ and then there is a pap where, it is liej lieved. some wonderful "missing rays." I including, perhaps the "death-ray," are to be found. The next known ray is called the "ultra-violet." and is present whenever the sun shines. Indeed, sunburn is ; largely caused by it. • After it we come to the group of seven rays which the human eye is able to see. the seven "colours" —violet, in- , '■ digo. blue, green, yellow, orange and red. ' And after that we have the dark rays | i which are ordinary heat. Then there is another gap in the scale, a hi? one: and. finally, there is reached the lowest-pitched note of all. the wireI less wave, by means of which broadcasting is carried on. It is a strange fact that every one of these known rays has a great influence on the human body, except the i broadcasting ray —and possibly that. ' too. may have an influence about which. Jas yet. we know nothing. All the triumphs of modern medicine jin the use of rays have been won by ! studying: the bad'effects of the various j ray-notes and turning them to good I uses. Let mc give an example. I Rays That Destroy. i When X-rays were first discovered nobody had any idea that they were dangerous. And so a great rainy people who were using them each day ' got severely burned. Some of these ' pioneers were so severely injured, in--1 deed, that they died. ! This discovery made it plain that the ; rays could destroy living flesh. From I that starting point has come the ! modern treatment of cancer, which is a I living growth, by X-rays. I la the same way, as we all know, ! light can burn the skin. It is now ■ being used to burn and destroy germs lof disease in various parts of the body. The terrible affliction, lupus, or "the wolf." which, only 20 years ago was regarded as hopeless, and which too often ate away the whole face of its poor vk-tini. is now easily and nearly ' certainly curable by means of light. ! Lupus is tuberculosis, or "'consumpi tion."' of the skin of the face. The ' light destroys the germs of the disease. : and the skin heals up. In the same ! way. light is now used to heal con- ! sumption of the bones ill children, and i the fearful spectacle of their sufferings i i? bring abolished for ever. ! The difference between a» rosy-faced i boy or girl undergoing "light treat- ' me'nf in beautiful surroundings—and gaining in health—and tlfo poor. puny, white-faced "hospital children" with hip or spine disease, which T used to sec when I was a medical student, is ?o overwhelming fhat. even yet, 1 can scarcely believe it. These are some of the blessings which the radiologists have already given us. ! There are many more. We now know. for example. that rickets is a disease of darkness, and J that it. can be cured by sunlight—and iso another enemy of the children is ! being defeated and driven away. j Again, we know that light enables ! linnps to grow and bodies to develop. Very soon every school will possess it* : -'solarium."' or sun bath, in which unfit hoys and girls can be given this great natural tonic. ; And that is only the beginning. It is never safe to prophesy, but I ! believe that, just as» X-rays have changed the treatment of broken bone?. so these "light tonic lamps'' will change , the treatment of depression and sleep- . ]os=;ness and nervousness. i Instead of sending people t<. bed. we i shall send them to bathe in golden sunI light, and -iical themselves with the i rays of the dawn.*'