ULTRA VIOLET RAY

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 73, 19 December 1928, Page 10

ULTRA VIOLET RAY

“WILL REVOLUTIONISE MEDICINE” OPINION OF WELLINGTON DOCTOR The opinion that ray therapy, which is now being used on the King, would iu time revolutionise modern medicine, was expressed yesterday by Dr. 11. Graham Robertson, who is regarded as the pioneer of ultra-violet ray treatment in New Zealand. There was a very unfortunate confusion, said Dr. Robertson, between ultra violet ray and violet ray. The latter was only an electric current passed through a vacuum tube, while ultra violet ray was made of wave lengths and jvns divided into roughly three regions, all of which had different properties. One of the regions was called the long-wave region; that was what was being used on the King at the present time. The ultra violet ray acted on the living cells of the skin and also on the blood and nerve endings.

The action of the tonic ray, which was playing a part in the treatment of His Majesty, was roughly about fourfold, continued Dr. Robertson. “It increased tremendously the killing power of the blood against germs; strengthened the resisting power of the blood against germs; increased the calcium iron and phosphate in the blood; and strengthened the internal glands. It was on an equilibrium of those that one’s health largely depended.

“If you take those four actions into account you will realise what the treatment means in its applicability to the King,” said Dr. Robertson. “At the same time one has to remember that the application of the ultra violet ray to large skin surfaces sets up congestion of the lungs, so that in the treatment of chest conditions considerable care has to be exercised. It has also to be remembered that ultra violet ray replaces nothing at all; it is merely an adjunct and all the other surgical methods have to be brought in. The leading ‘light’ men throughout the world are strongly of opinion that it should be used not merely bj' doctors but by men who have been trained to it, and the various medical associations recognising that are seeking ways and means whereby that very desirable result will be brought about.”

Dr. Robertson said that when he was Home about three years ago what struck him most was that the claims of therapy were considerably hampered by prejudice and ignorance and the enthusiastic claims made for it by some of those who were using it. Personally, he thought that in view of the part it was playing in the treatment of the King it would be given its recognised position in the medical world. The educational authorities in England had taken the matter up and their efforts in the schools and similar institutions were limited only by their financial position. All through London these “light houses” were to be found. Hundreds and hundreds of children received treatment every day. It was possible, added the doctor, to obtain ultra violet ray treatment in the hospitals of -the four centres in New Zealand so far as he knew. “The great trouble here,” he said, “is that the doctors who wish to use it have no opportunity of studying it except by books. I think ray therapy is going to revolutionise modern medicine.”