NEW THINGS ABOUT SUNBURN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2677, 4 August 1913, Page 2

NEW THINGS ABOUT SUNBURN.

(By Ur L. K. iiirshborg.;

! Souiu receul experiments mauu in Al- | gmrs, coupled Willi experiments made j cisuwtiero last season, concerning the ’ action of the sun on the human skin, i together with preventives aaui remedies 1 ior those hums, have brought to light : considerable that is now and intere-stum j couicernuig sunburn under various conditions. . j Jno recent experiments in Algiers j wore made by ckirgeou-hlajor Aura- | u.ond dt> Laroguette, of i-ho 1‘ inpoh | Army, and he was awarded a medical ; prize by the Government for his sucI vessful work along these lines, hj has ! long been known that the sun’s rays j s t up various reactions in the skin, ■ according to the equality, the intensity, i and the duration o. year exposure to I the sun. The results of strong sun- ! «jiuno, and experiments of tho sun’s oi- ' foots on areas oi skin of various parts lof ihe body exposed to tno open an 01 j heiiuul glass screens, differ with people ; according to their complexions, their I general health’, and their skin, j in the open air —in man —exposure of i from 30 to 4.0 minutes to tho sun at | Atlantic City gave rise to slight flashy i redness, accompanied by a little sweat- ! ing. ibis redness made its appearance j after 15 to h’U minutes’ exposure, aaid I .soon subsided, it only occurs when the ! temperature exceeds 00 degrees, it is | a redness which appears to bo duo ’ quite as much to contact with heated j air ae to th direct action oi the heat j rays of the sun. I Toward the second hour after exI posuro a secondary redness began to j make its appearance which underwent j gradual development during tho rej xaaindor ol tho day ; already well mark- | od by the fourth hour, it reached its i maximum toward the twelfth hour. At i this stage the hue was uniformly i bright red, but pressure with the linger i druie ihe blood out of the dilated veins and capillaries, leaving a white maix j Twenty-.our hours hvVeT tjjus was no j longer'the case, there was more or less discoloration under tho skin, with tod ■spots about tho color oi wine diegs. in tho course of the next four days lias discoloration became much darker, and each succeeding day for three weeks ihe skin became browner ami j browner. Tin- skim that were most ml ! at first were the cues that afterward i became the darkest. inU'y dark color poi'toasto-d tor ft vuiiable lapse of time, from several weeks to several months, according to the severity and the number of exposures to sunlight, it then faded and slowly disappeared. ' p Jn n Aurics oi pints Ot .slim wort' oxpo?svd. io tiiu silli lllt'Ui bi3Lug tinted with water colors; violet, blue, green, red, black, and brown were used, the colors being well ! marked and of xnouuim empth but ha\i ing no ;hiekiKos. Inior violet diid blue the reactions _ were as pronounced as in the open an. in tho other parts liio redness was ratuei Lo;>y pronounced, thougii still vvoil m.u iced. With tho dilfereiit colors, even under tho blue and violet, cno rodaoss as vorv trilling; when the color wa> dark and thick m formed a protective ! v-a.tn sn oil tho epidermis. C olor basin* ! alternately light and dark, with or j without tfiieknees. yielded zones ol red- | wide!i differ greatly and were well j marked or very slight. _ . i In spite of the artificial coloration of | rho flkih, the redness ran us course ! shereaitor toward pigmentation much I ihe same as ut the open air, with an uii tensitv proportional to tho amount ot I tho redness. , j Under window glass tho secondary i redness in not so great and appears j slowly; it requires sittings, lao-mg at j least* (x) minutes, in a strong sun ip i produce slight redness. The dark ! brown color is also much less iiuukou J and of shorter duration. Older tho ; (lilfercu i* coloi-od ulas&cs niarkcd. <.lillvx- ! enccs were no tea; under the yellow, j rod, bice and violet glasses tho piimi ary erythema was about equal that j met with under window glass, loner j tho black or smoked and green glasses 1 it is loss marked than under window ! glass’ when the hitter is kept at a email distance from tho skin, more pioj noui ocu on the contrary when tho glass | is in contact. _ , , i 'idle final series of tests were inane to j find a euro or some preventive of suuj burn. When water is kept iu contact 1 with tho skin in a very thin level, the | skin became sunburned even more ! quickly than hi dry air. Glycerine ap- , ! plied in the same way helped only a | | little in preventing the sunburn; but , | olive oil, vaseline, cold cream, wool fat 1 I and oils or fats in general all, whether ; i in ointment form or plain, almost en- i | tirelv prevented any development what- , j soever of tho redness, flip browning, ■ the blisters or any signs ot sunburn. The treatment of sunburn then, according to these new discoveries, is not only to anoint your skin with vaseline ( o r olive oil before encountering tho , >un’s days, hut also to use fatty and oily unguents for tho relief and treatment oi sunburn, once it has developod. Carbolatod vaseline or oil, salicylic j acid ointments, calamine lotion and j other such simple remedies should bo j among the equipment of everyone von- ’ taring forth on a summer’s a Ter noon | or a longer holiday at tho seashore or . the mountain. j Experiments made on severe sunburn . proved of unusual interest. It was ; found that tender skin subjected to , powerful sun’s rays throughout tho day i and repeated one or more days resulted j in such burns that large blisters, as i large as shillings and sixpences, would | appear on tho skin, while the soreness | had tiie same sensation as would follow ; on being badly burned by hot liquids. j in a party of young fellows starting j camping out and going about during the day in tho hot sun wearing only ! sleeveless jerseys, some of them were j prepared for the sunburn by means of j rubbing them m carbolatod vaseline, The result was that they had no blis- j tors, nor oven sufficient redness of the j skin to make themselves uncomfortable, j while the others, who, in the experi- | ment, went about without this on their j skips were severely sunburned. People with only a couple of weeks’ } vacation who wish to lay about on the j shore or paddle canoes with shoulders | and arms bared will save themselves a 1 great deal of suffering with just such I a simple precaution as covering them- j selves wherever exposed with the vase- ( line. Generally only the tip of the nose really “peels” from sunburn, and j by keeping carbolated vaseline on the j nose even this disagreeable trouble can , ■ bo avoided. • i