ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume 137, Issue CXI, 10 June 1926, Page 12

ARTIFICIAL SUNLIGHT

PREVENTIVE & CURATIVE TREATMENT

AN INDUSTRIAL FACTOR i

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, 18th March,

Considerable interest has been shown in an artificial sunlight exhibition held at the Middlesex Hospital. Here those keen about the new treatment are able to see all the latest developments in the mercury vapour lamps, and lectures are being given by experts. One of the most interesting exhibits is the Eoyal Society's Chart showing the range of electro-magnetic waves, from those emitted by radium to thoso used in wireless telegraph. The chart was prepared by a special committeo of the Eoyal Society for exhibition at Wembley, and in the preparation of it the greatest scientific authorities combined their knowledge. Artificial sunlight is becoming a matter of general importance. Not only is it being used for curative treatment in human beings, but it is being pressed into the service of industry. The artificial sunlight treatment is being administered to fowls to improve their laying capacity, to cows to make their winter milk as good in quality as summer milk. The Germans are using it for the treatment of leather, and colour manufacturers are using it to test their colours and printing ink. Under these circumstances Mr. George Curnock, radiologist at Middlesex Hospital, has undertaken the publication of a new journal entitled "Modern Sunlight" for all interested in the fuller use and development of sunlight (natural and artificial), ozone, and light. A WARNING. Speaking at the Middlesex • Hospital Exhibition Dr. Percy Hall said that it was only in recent years that modern physicians hfid looked to, the sun as a curative agent, and, indeed, until Dr. Rollicr announced his results to the medical world little or no attention was ever paid to the value of using sunlight in the treatment of disease. It was the greatest discovery in the last generation. In this country, owing to our low altitude and the dampness of our atmosphere and the dust and smoke, the ultra-violet rays practically did not reach us at all, even on the brightest sunny days, except in some favoured parts of the country, such as tho south coast. If we went to the high Alps things were different; there they had an atmosphere which was clear and free from dust," and there the ultra violet ray was at its best. He would like to warn the public as well as the medical profession that the ultra-violet ray treatment was one which ought to be left in the hands of those men only who understood it, and who had given it sufficient study. He regretted to find that all over London, and other parts of the country were daily opening institutions for treatment of disease by lay people who were not qualified to diagnose disease or treat a patient.

The editors of the new journal, "Modern Sunlight" contrast the position of Great Britain with that of other European countries in the matter of the use of sunlight. Here many hospitals have no "sunlight" equipment at all; installations consisting of less than half-a-dozen lamps are all that niany of tho great hospitals can boast. On the other hand, a German firm employs 1500 quartz lamps, for conditioning patent leather by means of artificial ultra-vio-let radiation. In Denmark light baths are installed in almost all provincial towns with more than 20,000 inhabitants, and even in smaller towns. Italy is making full use of her wonderful sun for curative and preventive treatment. There is practically no great or minor city in Italy which has not an institution, permanent or temporary. On the seashore, on the rivers, on the lakes, children are sent by tens of thousands, through the interest of the Government Medical Department, and communal or private organisations, for sunlight treatment. • TREATMENT OF RICKETS. Some, of the important discoveries have been made lately in regard to ul-tra-violet rays. Hitherto we have known that rickets can be prevented and cured in two specific ways, by giving a child cod-liver oil, which contains the so-called "anti-rachitic factor," or by giving liberal doses of sunlight. It has now been discovered that rickets can also be cured, and prevented, by I feeding a child with food which has been exposed to sunlight, natural, and artificial.

It has been ascertained that the clement in food which becomes "activated" by sunlight is an alcohol. In animals it is present as cholestrol; in vegetable matter as phytosterol. If either of these substances is present in food and that food is exposed to ultraviolet light the food acquires new value. It become "anti-rachitic," or ricket-. preventing. Now cholesterol is one of the elements found in the skin of man. It is present there in greater total quantity than in any other organ except the brain. Being there it becomes "activated" when the skin is exposed, to ultra-violet light from the sun or from an artificial source. The sunlight activates the cholesterol in. the skin, endowing it with vital healing properties. These properties are then communicated to the whole system of the body. And "sunlight healing" take 3 place. Experiments have been carried out at Queen's Hospital for Children, Westminster, and the advantages of irradiated full-cream dried milk has been proved for children suffering from rickets. It is considered that when it becomes possible certain foodstuffs will be irradiated on a commercial scale. SUNLIGHT AT THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. The London Zoological Gardens at this moment is an object lesson in the value of radiant heat and light, fresh air, and "natural" conditions for all animals which are compelled to live in the damp climate of England and exchange the sunlit surroundings of their natural habitat for the cheerless, vitiated environment of a great city. Confronted by a very high ' mortality among certain animals which should live for years under their normal conditions, the authorities havebeguii the task of reducing this mortality by tho introduction of "artificial sunlight," coupled with warmth and fresh air. In this they have' been amazingly successful. Thanks to "artificial sunlight," several animals unable to live in England during the winter are now thriving at the Zoo. And so confident is the council in tho success of the experiment after tho experience of the last four months, that it intends to .apply the new system upon a very large and important scale in tho near future. POPULARITY IN GERMANY. Artificial sunlight treatment in Germany is passing beyond tho stage of experimental work in hospitals and clinics. It is going into the houses of the well-to-do, and the public bathhouses of the poor. Thousands of lamps are now being sold annually for use in tho sun-bathrooms of private families. Some idea of the hold which artificial sunlight has taken on the imagination of people may bo gathered from the fact that it is proposed to construct at East Reinchendorf, a district on the northern outskirts of Berlin, a municipal health-centre comprising an immense covered swimming-bath, a sand beach warmed and lighted by artificial heat and sunlight, baths of natural t sunlight, radiant heat, hot and cold

water, and an extensive ice-rink. The swimming-bath, which will be 3300 sq. metres in extent, will be emptied and re-filled daily by means of 10 vents, 300,000 litres of water passing in and out each time. The floor of the waterbasin will bo irradiated by artificial sunlight. Tho ice skating rink will cover an- area of 2600 sq. metres, and the plant used to freeze the ice will also provide steam heating for the various apartments, dressing-rooms, etc., connected with the centre. On the roof of the rink there will bo a rostaurant, and a natural sun-bathing area of 5000 sq. metres. A NEW DISCOVERY. It is a remarkable commentary upon the rapid strides made by modern science that since the preparation of the Royal Society Chart Professor R. A. Millikan, working at his laboratory in Pasadena, California, has detected the existence of even shorter and more powerful rays than those from radium. This great physicist, winner of the Nobel prize for physics, declares that there are rays, identifiable in strength at 10 miles above the surface of tho earth, and faintly at a depth of 45 feet under water, equivalent to a penetration of 6 feet of lead. 85, Fleet street.