SUN AS HEALER.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18603, 30 January 1926, Page 2

SUN AS HEALER.

MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ARTIFICIAL LIGHT. Treatment of disease by means of the sun's rays is found to be more effective than treatment by artificial light, according to an interim report, "Artificial Light and X r ray Therapy," issued by Dr. Lewis D. Cruickshank and Dr. Ernest Watt to the Secretary o £ the Scottish Board of Health. As to the action of the radiation, they concur, in the general view that the'value of treatment by the sun would appear to lie more in its place as an agent in stimulating the body generally than in any specific local effect that may follow'its application. Nature, again, it would seem, has established a limit beyond which the effects of the rays cease to be productive. The healing effects of radiation appear so far to be strictly limited to the improving conditio of growth or function that are below normal, though invariably the treatment to convey a general feeling of well-being. In connexion with the use of ultraviolet rays the authors point out that there is .obviously harm in, over radiation, and suggest that the absence or an accurate method of determining dosage is to some extent responsible for what appears to be a poor response to radiation on the part of some patients.. The numerous diseases benefiting from the treatment, such as non-pul-monary tuberculosis, rickets, malnutrition, and many others are enumerated, and the authors draw attention to "most satisfactory" results stated in the "American Review of Tuberculosis' to have been obtained. The method based on sun treatment has been tried for two months at the City Hospital, Aberdeen, the director being "very pleased with the results." The following paragraph in the report merits special attention: "On the question of protection for radiologists and their assistants, we found in a number of cases the protection was inadequate."