Doctors Disagree

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 614, 16 March 1929, Page 9

Doctors Disagree

RAY TREATMENT CONTROVERSY

Research Council Assailed

(United P.A. —£>?/ Telegraph—Copgrigh f 1 (Australian and .V.Z. Press Association* Received 12.53 p.m. LONDON. Friday. THE condemnation of artificial-light, treatment by the Medical Research Council has roused the widest interest. While there is a chorus of disapproval of the council’s attitude, some Harley Street specialists advocate caution, pointing out that ultra-violet rays are often recommended and given by unqualified men.

The Ultra-Violet and Allied Trade i Association, in a statement, says the i successful use of rays on the King I illustrates the medical profession's well-founded faith in artificial sunlight. “Most of the doctors are fully alive to its benefits,” runs the. statement. “Will they stand by and see themselves made the laughing-stock of the world. The hospitals have spent thousands of pounds on artificial-light installations. Now, for the first time, we are told the same results are obtainable by the use of a mustardplaster.” The chairman of the Institute of Hygiene insists that ultra-violet rays are much more rapidly effective than mustard plasters, and relieve lumbago in ten minues, when plasters are not effective in ten hours. Dr. William J. O’Donovan, of the light-treatment department of the

London Hospital, describes the vouiicil's reference to cod liver oil as “a resurrection of one of the most ancient superstitions in medicine. It is an impertinence for anyone to say the hospitals should be called on to justify their expenditure of money on lighttreatment, since it developed from daily observation of its merits and cures, as emphatically demonstrated in types of cases previously uncured. One's respect for any scientific paper must be diminished by rhetorical comparisons between artificial light and mustard plasters. The King's physicians considered ray treatment valuable for his Majesty.” Dr. Alfred Cox, medical secretary of the British Medical Association, says the whole subject is at present in the experimental and research stage. The treatment has unfortunately been unduly boomed from quarters which are incompetent to speak with any pretence of authority.