IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE.

Shannon News, 25 September 1925, Page 1

IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE.

LIGHT DOCTOR'S MESSAGE. Recently London lias been listening to the greatest story which science; hits ever told, writes a student of medicine in the London ..Sunday Times. 1 mean the story of the healing rays which are now, very quickly,taking the place of many of the oldtime medicines, and which, I think, are destined more and more'' to become the doctors' chief weapons. The great story was told by some-.of-, the foremost radiologists, as those who handle the ne\v weapons are called, in the world. They told of the rays of radium, called the gamma rays, of X-rays, of violet rays, of the sunlight itself, and of the ''dark rays" which ordinary folk call heat. And they pointed out that all these rays are "blood relations." of one another —members, as it were, of the same family, or, if you prefer it, notes in the same scale. The scale of Rays. lake the scale in music, the "ray scale" begins with high-pitched notes of quick vibration, and descends to low-pitched notes of slow vibration. The very highest note of all is the radium ray; next to it comes, the Xray, and then there is a gap where, it is believed, some wonderful "missing rays," including, perhaps, the "death ray," are to be found. .. The next known ray is called the "ultra-violet," and is present whenever the sun shines. Indeed, sunburn is largely caused by it. After it we come to the group of seven rays which the human eye is able to see, the seven "colours"— violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow orange and red. After that \ye have the dark rays, which are ordinary heat. Then there is another gap in the scale, a big one; and finally, there is; reached the lowest-pitched note of all, the wireless wave, by means of which broadcasting is carried on. , It is a strange fact that every one of these known rays has a great ini fluence on the human body, except the broadcasting ray—and posSibly that, too, may have an influence about which, as yet, we know nothing. •"•'■'' All the triumphs of modern medicine in the use of rays have been won by studying the bad effects of the various ray-notes and turning them to good uses. Let me give an example. Rays that Destroy.;.... . ; When X-rays were;'first, discovered nobody had any idea that they, were dangerous. And so a great 'many people who were using them each.day 'got severely burned; Some .of these, pioneers were:, so *severly„ injured that they died. Thin discovery made it plain .that the rays, could .' destroy ."living .flesh. From that starting point,has come the modcni"freatmejit of cancer, which IS living growth, by X-rays. In the same way, as we all knOAv, light can burn the skin." It is now being used to burn and destroy germs of disease in various., parts of the body.' ...: .

The terrible affliction, lupus, or "the wolf," which only twenty years ago was regarded as hopeless, and which too often ate away the whole face of its poor victim, is now easily and nearly certainly curable by means of light. Jiiipus is tuberculosis, or "consumption," of the skin of the face. The light destroys the germs of the disease, and- the skin h«a'ls up. -Inthe same way, light is now used to heal consumption of the bones hi children, and the fearful spectacle, of their sufferings is being abolished for ever. The difference between a rosyfaced boy or girl undergoing "light" treatment in beautiful surroundings —and gaining in health —and the poor, puny, white-faced "hospital children" with hip or spine disease, which I used to see when I was a medical student, is so overwhelming that, even yet, I can scarcely believe it. These are some of the blessings Avhich the radiologists have already given us. There are many more. We know, for example, that rickets is a disease of darkness, and that it can be cured by sunlight—and so another enemy of the children is being defeated and driven away. Again, ke know that light enables bones to grow and bodies to develop. Very soon every school will psssess its "solarium," or sun bath, in which unlit boys and girls can be given this great natural tonic. And that is only the beginning. It is never safe to prophesy, but I believe that, just as X-rays have changed the treatment of broken bones, so these "light tonic lamps" will change the treatment of depression and sleeplessness and nervousness. Instead of sending people to bed, we shall send them to bathe in golden and "heal themselves with the rays of the dawn."