PREVENTION OF SUNSTROKE

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2225, 11 August 1914, Page 6

PREVENTION OF SUNSTROKE

BED OR lELLOW CLOTH'.GUARDS?' ~ ;6To .vtli6}lMjtqr I .i ■ ■ ' * Sir.—lt : :W-'not;'|jenerally :known,'and mentioned only in a fow works on military', hygiene, that 'suiistroke is most probably caused :by the actindo rays of the■ sun. : ThiS' was first, pointed 'out-.by Major.'F.; H. Maude, 8.E., in a letter to the Indian Press. After having suffered from repeated attacks of sunstroke, acting on this theory ho ; had his hend-dress and coat, lined with red or yellow cloth, and never after had any trouble except on one occasion when a brother officer removed this lining, unknown to him, from his helmet. On going shortly after to his work he was seizod with violent headache and initial symptoms of sunstroke. My friend and fellow student, SurgeonMajor' Arch. Duncan, the author of "The Prevention of Diseases in Tropical Campaigns," a work which gained the "Partes Memorial Prize," noticed this letter, and having himself had. several sunstrokes, tried the plan, with the happiest results. All photographers know tliat it is the actinic rays , which fog their plates, and that the rays can be intercepted or filtered' out by red or orange glass or cloth. It is,,-therefore, not' unreasonable to .6ay, when a' person gets sunstroke, that his brain, spinal cord, and nervous system aro fogged. , Acting on these lines, Surgeon-Major Duncan, in his work, after advising that the head-dress should suitably protect the exposed temple as well as the nape of th® neck, recommends that it lie lined-with red or orange material, and also that the spinal pad protector, which should be sown into the back of all coats worn in tropical or sub-tropical legions, should bo lined the samo colour. Ho further snggests, observing that the most direct route to' that delicate organ the brain, lies through the soft and transparent structures. of the . eye, that all troops serving in.tropical climates should, : as they are in Egypt for the prevention of opthalmia, be supplied with- neutral tinted spectacles. . ' ' I trust,, sir, that at this juncture I ma.y bo pardoned for calling attention, to this 'simple but little known remedy or precaution for a very distressing and frequently fatal affliction.—l am, etc,, \ HARRY A. DE LATJTOIiB. i Formerly Lieut.-Col. N.Z. Med. Corps.