TREATING DISEASE WITH LIGHT.
DR. FINSEN, of Denmark, has caught the attention of the entire medical world by his new method of treating certain diseases by means of rays of concentrated light. His investigations are supported by state and municipal aid, and are indorsed by the leading physicians and professors of Copenhagen. The arc lights used in the treatment are 40,000 candle-power, about twenty times as strong as the ordinary arc light. Already 350 cases of skin diseases have been successfully treated by Dr. Finsen. This is the first instance in medicine where light has been successfully employed as a curative agency. After a series of experiments, Dr. Finsen has discovered that the blue, violet, and the ultra-violet rays, when concentrated, become a powerful therapeutic agent, killing bacteria in the skin of a patient in a few seconds. In order not to burn the skin when operating on a patient, it is necessary to cool the light; this is done by a lens that excludes much of the yellow, red, and ultra rays that are heating, but have no bactericidal qualities. In treating skin difficulties sunlight is employed as often as possible, otherwise the medium is an electric arc lamp. Dr. Finsen's method is considered as successful for scarlet fever and smallpox as in skin diseases.—Ledger Monthly.