‘Sun Cure’ Treatment

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 53, 14 February 1928, Page 8

‘Sun Cure’ Treatment

RECOMMENDED FOR NAPIER

IMPORTANT WEAPON AGAINST DISEASE

DR. J. A. ALLEN BERRY’S SUGGESTIONS

At yesterday's meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Board, Dr, J. Allen Berry, the medical superintendent of the Napier Hospital, reported on the “sun cure” treatment, and recommended that the treatment be carried out at Napier. In his recommendations to the Board, the doctor recommends that children who are predisposed to tuberculosis should undergo sun treatment on the Napier beach, and suggests that the Napier Borough Council allow a V costume instead of a fulllength costume. This, he says, would result in increased health and happiness and should not be a breach of any by-law.

In his report Dr. Berry stated: — “During the past year or two the ‘sun cure’ has been wideiy discussed, and it is now being raised that an important weapon against disease has been found. “My own interest in the subject dates back to 1916. when I applied it in the treatment of war wounds. Later, while in practice in London, I used sun treatment on the hospital balconies for cases of surgical tuberculosis in my children’s wards. I often thought at the time that, excellent as the results were in the climate of London even with what John Evelyn in 1661 called ‘ the hellish could of sea coal that maketb the city of London resemble the suburbs of hell,’ how in finitely better they would have been in the climate of Sunny Napier—a climate rivalling even that of the Mediterranean sea stations. On arriv ing here I found that comparatively little attention had been paid to the subject, and that naturally local authorities had done nothing to boom one of the great natural assets of our district. “At the commencement of this account of the subject, I would stress the fact that heliotherapy does not cure every disease, does not always succeed and requires patience. Also it has to bo given in a scientific man ner to sufferers fromdisease. It will not only cure, but may also kill. The same is true of a great number of remedies; arsenic in small doses may be very beneficial—in large doses it is fatal. IN THE EARLY AGES. “The Egyptians were probably the first to raise temples for sun worship to the great god Ka, who gave life to animals and man, and who made the fields fertile. Many of the physicians of classical times, such as Hippocrates, Celsus etc., gave some attention to heliotherapy, and the reading of a passage in Herodotus on sun treatment has a remarkably modern

ring about it. In the Dark Ages the practice fell entirely into oblivion, and it was not until Faure, who in 1774 communicated his results to the Societe Royale de Chirurgie and who soon had imitators, that it was revived. ’ “The recent cult may be said to date from 1903, when Rollier opened his first clinic at Leysin for the systematised heliotherapy of surgical tuberculosis. ’ ’ “In England the principal exponent of the sun cure is Sir Henry Gaurain, who has done a groat deal to put the subject on a thoroughly scientific basis, and whoso results even in the English climate are in no way inferior, and in many cases even better than the great Swiss physician Dr. Rollier, of Leysin. WONDERFUL RESULTS ATTAINED. “During my recent tour I paid a visit to the Treloar Homes, which aro situated just a little distance from the village of Alton on the London-Ports-mouth road. Hero there aro about 300 children suffering from what has been mistakenly called ‘surgical tuberculosis.’ ‘Surgical tuberculosis’ is a mis nomer. Surgical treatment is not in dicated and is not used in the best hands, except to a very minor extent. Here, as in other institutions, one is struck with the wonderful results that are attained, and by the happiness of the patients. “An extension of this home is situated on Hayling Island at Sandy Point, near Portsmouth. Here the children are in a hospital situated on the sea shore and as part, of the treatment have a sea bathe, which has been shown to be a very powerful stimulus to metabolism. A movement has been on foot to send from large English towns their tuberculosis sufferers to the Alps, but with the re

suits that are attainable in the hands of Gaurain and others it is being realised that this is a needless expense. In fact, many patients do better in England than in the ratified atmosphere of the High Alps. DR. ROLLIER ’8 CLINIC. I also visited the clinic of Dr. Hollier at Leysin, in Switzerland. This is situated to the north of Lake Lomau, and the automobile road passes Vevey, Montreux and the picturesque Castle' of Chilion immortalised by Lord Byron.At Aigle the road turns north and then ascends through a wooded mountain gorge until a plateau at an altitude of 4500 -feet is reached. Here, surrounded by mountain tops covered by snow all the year round lies the village of Leysin. There is an electric cog railway from Aigle to Leysin, and its trains contain a special car for the use of bed-ridden patients. “In 1886 the population of Leysin was only 296—t0-d.ay it is estimated as between 4000 and 5000, which shows clearly the popularity of the sun cure. “As to the final results, Rollier states that out of 2167 cases of tuo. erculosis bones and joints treated from 1913 to 1921, 1746 cases were healed clincially and radiographically. 242 were improved, 147 stationary, and 32 became worse.. “The practice of heliotherapy is nothing but a return to the natural laws of existence from which an excessive civilisation tends more and more to draw us away. The immutaole laws of Nature have, in fact, taught us that to live and develop normally, air and sun are as indispensable to the human being as to the plant. This is especially true of the child, that human plant of whom Michelet has said that ‘it is the one of all others which has most need of sunshine.’ RECOMMENDATIONS. “In order to carry out sun treatment effectively at the Napier Hospital 1 would recommend that: — (1) A solarium be built on the western grass plot in front of Shrimpton Ward. (2) That a sun porch be erected off Jellicoe verandah, (3) If nut too late, 1 would recommend that the roof of the operating block be flat, so as to be used as a solarium. “Many children who are predispos cd to tuberculosis I have recommend ed to undergo sun treatment on the Napier beach. A suggestion to the Borough Council that a V costume instead of the full length costume should he allowed. This would result in increased health and happiness and should not be a breach of any bylaw.’’ After expressing the hope that the recommendations would be given effect to members referred the report to the Finance Committee.