MARVELOUS CURES BY LIGHT.
At the London Hospital, in Whitechapel, marvelous cures are being effected by the electric light. It is quite three years since the discovery was made by a Copenhagen doctor that both sunlight and electric light can cure certain diseases when all other remedies fail. And early in the summer of this year the Princess of Wales induced the authorities of the London Hospital to try the cure. Her Royal Highness presented them with the necessary apparatus, of which the total cost was £500. The method is a curious though simple one. If any one visits the London Hospital between 2 and 5 P. M. on any day of the week, he will find, in a bright, cheerful room set apart for the purpose, a number of patients sitting on rocking chairs in a circle round the room. Hanging from the ceiling in the center is a very powerful electric lamp. And around it are arranged several telescopes, which concentrate the light on the patients. Beside each patient is a nurse, who presses a small glass lens on the spot of skin under treatment. To understand it all we must go back to the first experiment. As everyone knows, white light—the light of the sun, electric light, etc.—consists of a combination of all the colors of the rainbow. At one side of the rainbow are the red and the yellow rays; at the other side, the violet and the blue. The red and the yellow rays are carriers of heat; the blue and the violet are called chemical rays. That is to say, they are almost without heat, but they cause chemical action. For instance, if you mix the two gases, hydrogen and chlorine, in a thin bulb of glass, and then focus the red rays of light on it, nothing happens. But if you focus the violet rays, there is an immediate explosion. The photographer has reason to understand this. When a piece of photographic paper is exposed to the light, it blackens. But if a “ruby lamp” is used, no darkening of the paper follows, the red glass not allowing the violet chemical rays to come through. Now, some time ago a doctor put a piece of photographic paper under the skin of a dog, and focused the violet rays of sunlight on it. He put another piece in another dog, and kept him in a dark room. The result was that the first piece of paper was blackened, and the second unaffected. This seems a useless sort of experiment, but it was the first step in the great discovery. It proved that the chemical rays of light can pass through the skin. At the same time attention was directed to the curious fact that mountain climbers suffer badly from sunburn when passing over a field of snow, with the thermometer below zero. To elucidate this matter the following experiment was made. Sunlight was concentrated on the faces of two men, red glass being interposed in one case, and blue glass in the other. The red glass allowed all the heat of the sun to pass through, but kept off the violet chemical rays. The blue glass let the chemical rays through, but kept out the warm red light. After the experiment it was found that the man whose face was nearly roasted by the red light came out of the ordeal without a trace of sunburn, but the man on whom the cold chemical rays fell was badly sunburned. Therefore, the doctor concluded that the chemical rays were very irritating to the skin. If the chemical rays do this to a man's skin, he thought, no doubt they will have a destructive effect on microbes. Further experiment showed that bright sunshine killed the strongest of microbes—the bacillus prodigiosus—in one hour and a half. A powerful electric light killed them in nine hours. But by excluding the red heat rays, and concentrating the violet chemical rays, it was found that nearly all microbes were killed in a few seconds. Putting all these facts together, it was now known that the concentrated light of the sun or electric arc would kill microbes on the skin, in the substance of the skin, and even under the skin. In all probability, therefore, any skin disease due to microbes could be cured by light. Now, there is one such disease, a terrible infliction, which was the despair of the doctors. That is lupus, a first cousin of consumption, which attacks and deforms the face. In the light cure the doctors have now a perfect remedy. It is painless, but it has the drawback of being very slow, often taking months of daily treatment. It is carried out as follows: When the weather is fine and bright, the patients sit in the open air, and the light of the sun is used. When the weather is dark, the electric light is used. Of course the latter is very expensive, while the sunlight costs nothing. But, curiously, the electric light is more effective, being very rich in chemical rays. The apparatus slightly differs according to the light used. When the sunlight is used, a large glass lens, filled with blue water—sulphate of copper dissolved in water—is placed some little distance away from the patient. This concentrates the light, which is focused so as to let a spot about the size of a sixpenny bit fall on the patient’s face. The sunlight thus concentrated would quickly burn a hole in the face if it were not for the blue water. But the blue in the water prevents the hot red rays of the sun from coming through, and the water itself also absorbs the heat. Still, a good deal of heat finds its way through, and another appliance is therefore used. This is a small hollow glass lens, about one inch in diameter, which the nurse presses on the skin of the patient. It is connected with inflow and outflow tubes, and a stream of cold water is constantly passing through and absorbing the remainder of the heat. This lens also serves another useful purpose. The red blood ordinarily in the skin would prevent the passage of some of the violet chemical rays. But by pressing the lens pretty firmly, the nurse makes the skin bloodless. When the electric light is employed, a telescope takes the place of the large lens. The reason of this is that when sunlight reaches the earth, all its rays are parallel with one another, and they can at once be concentrated by a single lens. But the rays from the electric light diverge, and they have to be made parallel by one lens of the telescope before being concentrated by the other lens. The telescope is filled with water, and around it is a water jacket, so as to cool the light thoroughly. Photographs are taken before, during, and after treatment. And the collection at the hospital shows what marvelous cures have been achieved. Many persons who gave themselves up to lifelong deformity have reason to be grateful to the Princess of Wales.