SUNLIGHT FOR MINERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5286, 13 June 1928, Page 3

SUNLIGHT FOR MINERS.

ARTI FICIAL TREATMENT. PIT BOYS MADE TO GROW. Last August five pit boys from the Sherwood Colliery were taken for a fornight’s experimental holiday to Switzerland. The intention was to ascertain the effect upon their bodily condition of a. spell, of exposure to pure sunlight. The boys put on weight anil improved all round. This, trip was a. preliminary to thorough and scientific tests, which have, since been carried out, at. the pithead at the Sherwood pit, jvhere a fully equipped .clinic for the applicati.oji of artificial sunlight was installed last December. The report of the committee of medical men who have supervised the experiment is issued. The method employed was to ta.ke a hundred lads all of thesame physi,a hundred latte all of the same physical type and ages, fifty of whom were placed under treatment by mercury vapour quartz lamps, while the- other fifty were kept under observation. The first fifty were exposed twice a week to the ultra-violeit light in doses increasing to five or six minutes at a time to the front ’of the body and the back. At the end of three months the boys of .each group were reweighed and measured.

It was found that the boy's who had ha.d the I'ght treatment had on the average gained 41b 6.280 z in weight and increased 0.762 in in height. The other fifty boys had increased only 21b 10.24'0z in weight and o.’soin in height. With the help of the light each boy put on twice as much weight and about 50 per cent, more in height than the boy hot subject to treatment. There was a general improvement in appearance, spirits, and appetite.

• Generally the adult miners took the greatest interest in the experiment and voluntarily submitted to treatment Jin the clinic, a.nd distinct benefit is reported to have resulted from treating rheumatic and skin disease cases. Over one hundred miners’ children attended the cljinic, with good results. Altogether, the results are most enc’ouraging, and it will, not be surprising if the management of other collieries follow the excellent example set at Sherwood.