ARTIFICIAL LIGHT TREATMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20708, 4 May 1929, Page 8

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT TREATMENT.

RESEARCH COUNCIL'S REPORT; SPECIALIST'S REPLY.' ■ (From Ope Own Correspondent.) - T .. . LONDON, March 19.’ , In .their, report last week the Medical Research Council suggested that the value oi; artificial-sunlight treatment had'been exaggerated; and they issued certain warnings to the .public. A specialist,. interviewed by a representotive.oi the; Observer, said: , ' It .is';- important to differentiate between two: uses of artificial sunlight. On the one. hand there is its curative use; that is to say, its use in combating tuberculosis and in .assisting convalescence from such ills, say, as pneumonia. But, in addition#other claims are being made for it. Kay treatment is advocated, as the report says, not ailments of . many kinds and as urn aid to convalescence, but even for .the preservation of a feeling of wellbeing." .“To take the first point. The. value ot ■, artificial sunlight in treating tuberculosis is universally admitted. In treating some 1 kinds pf tuberculosis we have found that artificial sunlight is, beyond dispute, just as effective as real sunlight. Similarly, nobody can deny that, as an aid to convalescence, it has proved its -value. The Medical Research Council says ‘ it com-' inonly costs 3s to 4s to give by light an effective supply of vitamin D that would 2?' r® 3 if r given by the mouth in 9® totm of- cod-liver oil or ’otherwise.* Kut what about the; numerous cases where it is impossible to ‘feed up’ the patient? The cases When the stomach refuses to - take nourishment? It is one of the great assets, of the treatment ,that by its means a patient can absorb vitamins through his skin in that period of convalescence when the stomach is/too weak. As _to- the mustard plaster—even the value of that has not been proved. It has I?®® 11 proved..that a mustard, plaster on a laboratory animal causes a change'in the blood, but it has not been proved that it is equally effective on the human being. In any case, it involves a mustard plaster covering one-sixth of the area of the body tor two hours at a stretch! The treatm/nLmay be cheap, -but it- is drastic! ■ - - regret as much as anyone that artificial sunlight has been exploited commercially _in, such a manner that out-rageous-claims are being made/ for it; Tto is, the youngest branch of medical science, and we have a great deal yet to find out. But its value has' been proved.” HOSPITAL DEMONSTRATIONS. p.-Dr G. Murray ‘Levick, electrologist of ot. I homas s Hospital, has a letter in ihe Times' controverting tome of the statements made by the Research Council; ‘ The only real argument 'advanced, namely, he says, “ that, the physiological .action ■of artificial or. solar radiation is obtained ‘ solely, through the action of ultra-violet" rays in converting ergosterol into vitamin D, is" surely the result of too narrow a ,limitation of attention upon these rays, and the statement- that all infants ;benefited. by artificial- rays can obtain equal benefit from cod. liver oil is not trpe. .It has been shown.in many hospital departments, including the Victona Hospital for Children and the Heritage Craft Schools at Chailey, that many children who do .not thrive on cod liver bil do'not thrive on aftici’al light treattnent. At hospitals the production ot. an erythema - is -never allowed ‘ because ■ ,1 s , an , elementary mistake that might wdUead to the.conclusi one communicated by the Medical - Research Council. The somewhat flippant allusion to the alternamisleading- mU ® tard ■ plaster .is therefore ~ That the visible and other rays of the solar spectrum have a physiological value-was . proved conclusively by my extreatment; at . St. Thomas’s Hospital six years ago. Independent observation of a senes of marasmic child£an. ip r 9^ e d*that they, gained in weight and-basal, metabolism and i n general un/ v." which was afterwards maintained. Ihis ha s been borne out subsequently by a .long senes of similar cases; •. ■ ’ CRUDE METHODS. ra /‘ s not Produce an erythR i « nt y , m I on J you pubi/nfn '® !i te / by Professor Leonard Hi!l ’•% 1 the -pliirsiological value ,of, these rays'.’-. The use of the mercury vapour lamp vvulhout tiuxiliaS thnn r nlfr n t - I ] r ? d \ lCC the solar, rays other nW l tr 5 V /'° let i s a . ®rode and incompiete method. The same may be said of open, carbon arcs employed in confined spaces. The deductions in the council’s r a vu feen , based upon -the treatment'of children by these crude methods, and no mention is made of the thousands of cases published, in the leading medical Sn S > C . le “fi? e ,, ioU / nals of a dults who W Hhto and cur , ed of ailments that .tSitment.^ d evary 01-ber known form of ment^hlf 33 ra 4 iat!o P ]s a form of treatV qmres lodgment and nicety PP as well aa clinical expert ence, so that, as in other forms of mediIhXTthltTf ,vh ,l re “there fail ine tact that a few observers have failed TJ ldenc . e 'that Others do not d reports M « P e S is admitted that the reports received from artificial ' hVht centres vary considerably.’ On thin/an. count, ami in view of the of C o^ a%ubllc 1 fe e '- BUrely Publication- by a public, body is regrettable.” '

AN IMPERTINENCE. ' chareeTf S. O’Ponovan/. (phjisiciamih: *»gg^<<^*S!L%Sßa)S ancient superstitions in inediclne ” ' «"'»“S J^i^ssa^aarK.-t lupus; tubercular disease of public funds, to great e S! ltu p in ere as Od^terl c fda Tpo wer^of 6 the as shown m the laboratory has not I, co-related with any permanent !$^ bee * value in the bndv bnt ?).?= . effects of Purely a ; patients improve markedlv' Jnj m ‘ -ir e rtethor thA b. «3S?.S" , S K ; . , COME AND SEE. t.h T irx‘erto i °i3f?i th * t h “»i contributions ofthenublieV™ Eener 9PS bn. .their *%TT curing people, and they efv ‘ • Aril e ■ ' doubt, comments the Dailr- tLi graph, the main purpose of ti> o ivr ,9 Research Council S °L the Medical warning against the extra vaesmt ariS W^ * c posterous claims made for rfytheranv P 'i G ‘ the unauthorised and acainst tk„ a ?. v sjtjsj-fft«? there is. also money in it if oll V e exploited, and this parLular exm?n?i°^ Iy 18 Proceeding at a rat e . f ’ P at ‘ 0n