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1928
35
other difficulties of estimating the value of the treatment. One
has been mentioned, viz; the absence of the recorded heights and
weights. The heights and weights before and after treatment
could be compared with those of children who had received other
treatment.
The Council is aware that controversy has arisen
concerning artificial Light treatment, and it may possibly desired
to have some information about the treatment.
The term "actinotherapy" is now generally used to
indicate the scientific treatment of disease by artificially produced
ultra-violet radiations, as distinguished from treatment by means
of natural sunlight which is known as "heliotherapy." Although
the exact causes were unknown, the earliest records of history
and mythology shew, that, in all ages, man has regarded the
sun as a source of health giving energy. Though the beneficial
effects of the sun were thus known from the earliest times, it is
only towards the close of the last century that organised efforts
were made to use the health-giving energy of the sun for the
benefit of mankind. In 1893, Prof. Nils Finsen published the
details of his investigations regarding the physiological action
of light and the result of his work in connection with the light
treatment of surgical tuberculosis. Owing to the difficulty of
obtaining adequate supplies of artificial light, Prof. Finsen, for
some of his more important work used the Carbon-arc as a
means of producing ultra-violet radiation. The first Finsen lamp
used in this country was soon afterwards presented to the London
Hospital by the. late Queen Alexandra.
Light treatment made but little progress during the next
few years, and it was not until 1903 that the first European
Clinic for the sunlight treatment of tuberculosis was established
at Leysin by Dr. Rollier.
During the last thirty years precise observations have been
made of the action of light rays in disease.
In addition to the results obtained in surgical tuberculosis,
research work in rickets has been rewarded by three important
discoveries;
(1) That rickets can be cured by ultra-violet radiation of
the skin surface:
(2) That this action of light could be exercised indirectly
by exposing certain food-stuffs to ultra-violet rays:
(3) That the antirachitic action of irradiated food-stuffs
depended on the presence of Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is found particularly in ergosterol which is a
constituent of Cod liver oil. Ergosterol is a highly saturated
sterol and is the direct precursor of Vitamin D, and this substance
is transformed into Vitamin D when the skin is exposed