SOLAR THERAPEUTICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 177, 28 July 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

SOLAR THERAPEUTICS.

THE SUN REDISCOVERED. EFFECT ON HEALTH. IBy PERITUS.) iNo. L.i Kngli-h Street Urchin (Seeing I'arsee in costume ! : 'uo's "ee Constable: That's a Parsee. my sou. They worship the sun. I rehin : I'gh ! Ve don't say niutiy pravers in this country, I reckon.—"Piuicli."

Europe has rediscovered the actinic rays, and sunlight, real and artificial, is the "cure ' of the moment. Equatorial populations who spend all the time possible to them in the .-hade, and dodge the sun as an enemy, are not interested. From October until May the sunlight in England. as a curative and life-giving force is. so to speak, oil duty, and science has provided an excellent substitute. There ' r '' already over one hundred and tveiitv -niilight clinics in England, and a c host •i qualilied and unqualified "specialists-'' have installed sun-rav lamps, and treat a. 11 and sundry on dull days and throughout the sunless season. Special window glass and special clothing are now manufactured with the purpose o] e\posit ,,T the body to the ultra-violet ray. and /no monkeys arc provided with new rooting in their houses to give them the benefit of the new discovery of the health-giving and stimulant invisible rays. An indication oi the great in'ereM e\ inc"d is that the London "Time-" has --ned a special sunlight number. The English Pall. Apart from such places a s Falmouth • ]ias long boasted of the longest period of unclouded sunshine in England, each year). England is a grcv and >unlescountry ior the greater part of the yea 1. and in the northern manufacturing di.--triets. and in London it-<dt. f,,, ;u: ,; smoke-laden vapour co\er the town and untry with a pall alino-t inipenetraMe to light for weeks 011 end. For the b-r five years Auckland has not kept up t- reputation as a Minn\ cit\. th >usrh Ist summer was an exception, but there are not an excessive number of cases 0 i rickets as a consequence, although tuberculosis has gained sufficiently to call for Health Department attention and al special inquiry. For the strong arid! healthy sunlight is a matter of indiffer-J ence unless an overdose proves that even the strongest cannot treat the sun with! idisrespect. For the delicate'and the si -k sunlight can be so used as to perform miracle- 0 f healing, but medical knowledge. experience and training must act :n pej \ isjon for the best results to bej at'a;ncd. To what depth below ti,r irround. and through what sub-tanc — sunlight will penetrate ha= nor yet been definitely determined: and it may oe that 'some life-=upport in.u influence the wonderful adaptability of the iiumaD

body to circumstances'i has enabled prisoners in subterranean dungeons to live lor rears. bleached may he. but other wise able in survive. Workers in de.-p mines do not ]jve as long as other folk and tin- deprivation of sunlight must always have unpleasant effects 011 mental and physic-al conditions. I

Though with a moderate amount oJ discomfort a healthy man or woman ear be burnt brown by the sun in a few prolonged, exposures, and be little tw worse. for the skin soon protects itsejj t'rom further injury, nobody is any bettei for this browning process apart from tbtonic action of open air and sea bathiri: and the advantages of a holiday. Bui >1111 bathing as a therapeutic measure i adapted to many forms of disease, trior* especially those due to absence of sur light and the vitamin "D" which sunligh" develops in certain varieties of food. To Be Employed With Caution. ""Artificial sunlight" electrically pro duced is perhaps more easily eontrollec than the direct rays of the sun itself but both forms can be misused and it i; thought that the invaluable vitamin E in food can be given in an overdue anc' cause unpleasant symptoms. To quote from the special issue of the Londoi "Times"': '"There is no justification fot the rashness which causes many peopk to place themselves for 'sunlight treat' [ment* in the hands of inexperienced anc unqualified individuals. Sunlight treatment is medical treatment in the strict (est sense of that term and ou-jht in 1»t given only by physicians who havt devoted special study to it. The s.ili'.f i-aution is necessary in making use oi the various irradiated foodstuffs which are now available. Cases have been reported in which, after the u~e of irradiated food, symptoms of a nior>- or le~j distressing type ha\e manife-ti'd themselves. it is probable that in this, ain other directions, 'what i- one man's fotwl is another man"- poi-on.' diet, like sunlight baths. ~ 1 j.t to be adapted to the need- of the indiwiuai by a competent ph v-i'-ian."