HOME TREATMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 138, 13 June 1934, Page 13

HOME TREATMENT.

SUNLIGHT CURES. (By PERITUS.) Dr. Campbell Maefie, the recognised authority on phototherapy, says: "Sunlight, as thermal energy acting on the skin, produces much the same changes as are produced by fomentations, mustard leaves, and other forms of heat, and might be used in the same way for rheumatism, high blood pressure and other diseases, and we had suggested also that credit has sometimes been given to light which was really, due to air." This is some indirect praise for the nudist cult. In 1876 the bactericidal power of violet light was discovered, as distinct from the action of heat. Finsen was the first to use it for lupus. He found it necessary to use quartz lenses and compress the blood out of the tissues to be treated. It has been found that the action of the irritant light rays promote the formation in the blood of protective elements which are themselves inimical to disease microbes. Wounds exposed to air and light heal more quickly, in mountain air especially. Dr. Rollier says mountain* air and light as compared to air and light at low levels, "is as champagne unto wine." The "sun cure" is a combination of high air, high light, rest and diet, and, says Dr. Maefie, "it is safer not to regard the sun as a specific but as one of many factors." You must not confuse violet light with ultra-vio-let light, the latter only being curative and definitely so for rickets. Cod liver oil and sunlight together are slow in action compared with ultra-violet light, which is held back by ordinary glass. Many substances can be given an added nutritive value by being exposed to '< ultra-violet light. "The idea that infants and children must be exposed to ultra-violet light in order to acquire good health is contrary to experience," says Dr. jMacfie, for all necessary vitamins can be had in food. The milk of animals is beneficially affected by ultraviolet light (sun or artificial), and the food value of hens' eggs is increased and the laying qualities of the birds can be greatly increased also. Finally the doctor adds: "The remarkable results obtained by the use of ultra-violet rays in rickets have led to a rather illgrounded belief in their utility in health." However, successful results have followed light treatment in acme, eczema, boils, sycosis and herpes.