This Sun-bathing

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 532, 8 December 1928, Page 1

This Sun-bathing

Health Officer Says It Can Be Overdone ALL THINGS IN MODERATION

This sun-bathing business, according to Dr. John Boyd, of the staff of the Auckland health office, can be overdone. “Many people seem to have the idea,” say's the doctor, “that a tablespoon of medicine is twice as beneficial as a teaspoon full. Apply the analogy in terms of the sun, and the result may easily be lassitude, instead of added vigour, a sick head instead of a cleared brain, a blurred vision instead of a sparkling eye.” Dr. Boyd, did not, however, wish to overstate the dangers of too much sun. In moderation, as in all things, its value was indisputable. Nevertheless, New Zealanders were not negroes, and it was advisable that we should not delude ourselves that we were. Blondes —he called them auburns—were, as a rule, more prone to harm from a superfluity of ultra-violet rays* the things that caused the trouble, than were dark people. Persons who lay stretched out on the beaches during the blazing hours, say*, from noon until three, in a subtropical sun, unless possessed of exceptionally tough skins were liable to these disorders. Children, especially, must bo safeguarded. To allow a hot sun to scorch the back of the head, the nape of the neck, or the spine of the young, was generally to court ills of far-reaching consequence. Dr. Boyd prescribed adequate helmets, greenlined in front if possible, and red at the back. About sunburn the doctor had little to say. Rather, he implied w'ith a shrug, that if people thought to brownup at a single sitting—or more correctly, lying—well, that was where the chemist came in.