OUR BABIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1939, Page 10

OUR BABIES

Published under the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society). "It is wfw to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.*' SUNLIGHT AND HEALTH. — Summer is with us at last. There is warmth in the sun that shines, and our thoughts begin to turn now and then towards the summer holidays, longing for sunshine and the outdoors. Instinctively there is a bit of the sunworshipper in most of us, and of late years much precise knowledge has been accumulated regarding the beneficial power of the sun. One feels that perhaps we are seeing the beginning of a. new "cult of the sun,” based on scientific facts and a wealth of careful experiments. This is what Dr. C. Saleeby, an authority as well as an enthusiast on the subject, has to say about sunlight and health: “Sunlight is the source of all light upon earth. We have lately learnt that, it is no less valuable for ourselves than for plants, and doctors all over the world are getting back to the idea which animated Hippocrates, the ‘father of medicine’ in Greece 400 years before Christ, when he took off his patients’ clothes and made them bathe in pure air and sunlight.” (That, by the way, is the real meaning of the Greek word “gymnastics.”) These discoveries about sunlight are quite distinctive from what we have already learnt about fresh air. though the two things go naturally together; and the coal smoke which befouls the air also obstructs the light. Many experiments in laboratories and 82 years of experience with artificial light for the cure of disease (begun by Finsen, of Copenhagen, in 1893) have proved that light itself, in any kind of air that will let it pass, has special actions upon cur bodies peculiar to itself and precious to our lives.

THE BEST ANTISEPTICS. "Even before that date we had learnt that sunlight is an antiseptic—the oldest, cheapest, safest, and most natural, most widely applied in the world. The germs of tuberculosis have been experimentally found to survive after two years in the dark. Pure sunlight of the ordinary intensity in this country, undimmed by coal smoke, kills these germs in from seven to ten minutes. Wherever pure sunlight falls it’kills our deadliest enemies—whether upon our carpets or our pavements or our children’s playgrounds or sandheaps in the parks or anywhere else. There is little or no fear of contracting any infection anywhere in the open where the sun shines. Most of our infectious diseases are diseases of indoors and shade. It has been proved by exact experiment that sunlight raises the antiseptic power of our blood by its. action on the white blood cells. No chemical antiseptic, but only the celestial, has this power. “Certain parts of the light pass through the skin and are absorbed by the blood, ■which is enriched accordingly. Very few city dwellers have enough iron in their blood, for they are light-starved. The coal smoke which blackens us also bleaches us. When we are exposed to sunlight the amount of iron in the blood rapidly increases without any change of diet or the taking of any ‘chemical foods.’ Doubtless sunlight with its potent chemical action may cause the colour of carpets to fade, but colour in our children’s cheeks is more beautiful and more valuable than any carpet. Besides iron, we now know that lime and phosphorus and iodine are increased in the blood by exposure to sunlight. These elements are necessary to all of us, but pre-eminently for children, whose bones and teeth cannot develop properly without abundance of lime and phosphorus, noi' the brain and nervous system without abundance of iodine.

HOW TO USE THE SUNLIGHT. “But wc must understand how to use what we have and make the most of it. Probably the most valuable part of the light is that which we call ultraviolet —just too high in pitch for our eye to see. Ordinary glass, which does not arrest the visible rays, stops ultraviolet. Therefore we cannot avail ourselves properly of the sunlight behind closed windows. Unfortunately coal smoke acts like glass and arrests the very rays we need most. “It is the light and not the heat that serves us. Beyond a certain point heat is enervating and depressing, while light is a true stimulant. The early morning hpurs are therefore best, giving us a maximum of light without too much heat. This is a useful purpose served by ‘daylight saving.’ What a pity that the early morning hours are scarcely more than a rumour for most of us. In order to remind mothers of this point, I use a little couplet thus: Feax' the heat and love the light, Keep youx - children cool and bright. The next point is to be careful always to protect the head and eyes. (In Switzerland many people actually have to wear dark goggles). An inexpensive white hat with a green-lined brim, very light in weight, such as athletes often wear, is the ideal for this purpose.

“Hasten slowly” when beginning io give your skin the value of the sunbath. Remember that nearly the whole of the body is unaccustomed to the light. A very few minutes are enough for a start. The faster the skin tans the more you can expose it. No one as yet understands this tanning or what it means, but it is a beneficent process, and we use it to guide ourselves as to our use of the sun. Those who do not tan, but freckle, should go even more slowly than others until the skin can be persuaded to react properly. It is certain that the improved health of women today partly depends upon their modern style of dress, which gives the sunlight a chance to reach the skin (whether uncovered or clad only in, for instance, translucent sleeves and stockings) and so enrich Ihe blood and serve our lives.