TREATING DISEASE BY RAYS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 February 1929, Page 7

TREATING DISEASE BY RAYS

(By A SPECIALIST. A specialist : n the treatment of dis ease by artificial light, which is urn being given to the King, here ex plains tho effect of the rays.

The great advantage of treatment by ultra-violet rays lies in their i fleet upon the blood. Besides the ordinary red corpuscles (the tiny discs liicli give the blood I chavaetcritic colour) there ar: a minority of small white cells denting in it. The first might he compared wdl the merchant navy, which carries car goes of oxygen. The second, flying ill white ensign instead of the red, is the battle fleet, which repels and •(••strey invading microbes. Ultra-violet rays, acting on tin blood-vessels of the skin, stimulate tinbody so ns greatly to increase the number of these cells. How they do it is still a myd.-i v. They can pentrate only a min me fraction of an inch into the body, so it nimpossible for them to have any dircl action upon tho deeply situated organs winch normally control such an m crease. Blit we know that they are capable of eiUlnnig profound chemical changes in inalltitUlte 3U i-iaiieOa One of these changes l« the production of vitamins. It is likely that tin* same kind of thing happens when they act directly upon the blood. It is not strange that this secret should not yet have been discovered, for indeed we know very little as yetof these rays. The sun’s light is largely composed of them, but to call them “light” might appear to be a uiisnoni cr, since they are invisible to the human eye.

They arc curiously delicate as compared will other rays. Instead oi crashing through solid substances, like their relatives the X-ray and the Gninmarays or radium, they are tunic i back by the slightest obstruction. A film of grease on the skin is an inurmountablc obstacle to them. (Every woman knows that an oily '•osmetic will prevent sunburn which they cause.) Smoke, soot, or moisl ure in air will prevent their passage. They will not even penetrate ordinary Mass. ‘ Quartz, which the rays w:i! Lass, is used as a substitute for glass HLtlic burners ol the ‘'Mciv.ury Yaplamp commonly used for the mcnwnul application of ultra-violet rays. In tliis type of lamp they are generated by passing an electric spark through a long quartz tube, one end oi which is filled with mercury. Another usual type is, practically, i n ordinary arc lamp, with carbon or tun - sten electrodes. Though the working of both these is a fairly simple matter, their application for healing purposes is not. It requires not only technical skill, hut the wide knowledge of medicine as a whole, which only training and experience can give.