OUR BABIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22714, 29 October 1935, Page 15

OUR BABIES

By Hygeia.

Published under tha auspicis of th» Royal New Zetland Society for th« Health of Woraon and Children (Plunktt Society). "It it iciser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to main. tain on ambulance at the bottom," SUNLIGHT AND HEALTH. Spring is with us at last, there is warmth in the sun when it shines, and our thoughts begin to turn now and again towarde tho summer holidays, with longing for (sunshine and the out-of-doors. Instinctively there is a bit of the sun-worshipper in most of us, and of late years so much precise knowledge has been accumulated regarding the beneficent power of the sun that one feels that perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a new "cult of the sun," based on scientific facts and a wealth of careful experiment. This is what Dr C. W. Saleeby, an authority as well as an enthusiast on '.he subject, has to say about sunlight and health : " Sunlight is the eource of all life upon earth. We have lately learnt that It is no less valuable for ourselves than for plants, and doctors all over the world are getting back to the ideas which animated Hippocrates, the ' Father of Medicine,' in Greece 400 years before Christ, when he took off his patients clothes and made them bathe in pure air and sunlight. (That by the way, ss the real meaning of the Greek word ' gymnastics.') " These discoveries about sunlight are quite distinctive from what _we have already learnt about frosh air, though the two things go naturally together, and the coal smoke which befouls the air also obstructs the hght. Many experiments in laboratories and 30 years of experience with artificial light for the cure of disease (begun by Finsen, of Copenhagen, in 1893) have proved that light itself, in any kind of an which will let it pais, has special actions upon our bodice peculiar to itself and precious to our IIV6S ' THE BEST ANTISEPTIC. "Even before that date we had learnt that sunlight is an antiseptic—the oldest, cheapest, safest, most natural, most widely applicable in the world. The germs of tuberculosis have been experimentally found to survive after two years in the dark; pure sunlight of the ordinary intensity in this country, undimmed by coal smoke, kills those germs in from seven to ten minutes. Wherever pure sunlight falls it kills our deadliest enemies—whether upon our carpets or pavements or children's playgrounds or sandheaps in the parks or anywhere else. There is little or no fear of contracting any infection anywhere in the open where the sun shines. Most of our infectious diseases are diseases of indoors and the shade. It has been proved by exact experiment that sunlight raises the antiseptic power of the blood by its action on the white blood cells. No chemical antiseptic, but only the celestial, has this power. THE ONLY SKIN FOOD. "We sometimes read advertisements about 'skin foods.' There is no suchfood but sunlight Certain parts of the light pass through the skin or nre absorbed by the blood, which is enriched accordingly. Very few city dwellers have enough iron in their blood, for they are light-starved. The coal smoke which blackens us also bleaches us. When we are exposed to sunlight the amount ot iron in the blood rapidly increases—without any change of diet or the taking of any 'chemical foods.' Doubtlesß sunlight with its potent chemical action may cause the colour of carpets to fade, but colour in our children's cheeks is more beautiful and more valuable than any carpet. "Besides iron, we know that lime, phosphorus, and iodine are increased in the blood by exposure to sunlight. These elements are necessary for all of us, but pre-eminently for children, whose bones and teeth cannot develop properly without abundance of lime and phosphorus, nor the brain and nervous system without abundance ot iodine. When studying the researches on this subject in New York I saw many infants whose blood had been transformed and their rickets exorcised by a fortnight's exposure to the sunlight. DISEASES OF DARKNESS. "Indeed, there is a whole series of diseases which can be prevented and cured by sunlight, and which do not occur where people properly value sunlight and use it as they should. To these, some years ago, I gave the name of ' diseases of darkness.' Tuberculosis and rickets are examples of these diseases, and it is very important to know that they yield not only to .the sunlight of the high Alps of, Switzerland, but also to the pure sunlight undimmed by coal smoke of our own country. HOW TO USE THE SUNLIGHT. " But we must understand how to use what we have and make the most of it. Probably the most valuable part of the light is that which we call ultra-violet-just too high in pitch for our eyes to see. Ordinary glass, which does uot arrest the visible rays, stops the ultra-violet. Therefore we cannot avail ourselves properly of the sunlight behind closed windows. Unfortunately coal smoke acts like glass and arrests the very rays which we most need. Wide use is now made at the Zoological Gardens and in our schools and hospitals of the ' vitaglass,' made by our chemists in response to an appeal for something cheaper than quartz which I made in 1924. " It is the light and not the heat that serves us. Beyond a certain point heat is enervating aud depressing, while light is a true stimulant. The early morning hours are therefore the best, giving ve a maximum of light without too much heat. This is a useful purpose served by 'daylight saving.' What a pity that the early morning hours are scarcely more than a rumour for most of us. _ln order to remind mothers of this, point, I use a little couplet, thus : Fear the heat and love the light; Keep your children cool and bright. "The next point is to be careful always to protect the head and the eyes. (In Switzerland many people actually have to wear dark goggles.) An inexpensive white-lined hat, very light in weight, such as athletes often wear, is the ideal thing for this purpose. "' Hasten slowly' when beginning to give your skin the value of the sunbath. Remember that nearly the whole of the body is unaccustomed to the light. A very few minutes are euough for a start. The faster the skin tans the more we can expose it. No one yet understands this tanning or what it realiy means, but it is a beneficent process, and we use it to guide ourselves as to our use of the sun. Those who do not tan, but freckle, should go even more slowly than others until the skin can Le persuaded to renct properly. "It is certain that the improved health of women to-day partly depends upon their modern style of dress, which gives the sunlight a chance to reach the pkin (whether uiicovered or clad only in, for instance, translucent sleeves and stockings, and so enrich the blood and serve their lives."