X-Ray, Violet Ray, and other Rays by Maynard Shipley

That both the compound rays of ordinary sunlight and ultra-violet rays ("artificial sunlight") are highly effective in the treatment of a number of complaints is now well known. They are both in general use for the external treatment of rickets, tuberculosis, and a number of other diseases. Light-rays are also applied to hasten the healing of wounds.

The use of the sun as a healing agent seems first to have been developed in a scientific way by Dr. Neils R. Finsen, a young Danish physician who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. His original researches were undertaken toward the end of the 19th century. Then Dr. Rollier opened the first sunlight clinic in 1903, and in 1910 established his school at Leysin, in the Alps. Dr. Rollier is now treating about 1,000 patients, mostly afflicted with various forms of tuberculosis of the bone. The sun cure is also used to some extent for pulmonary tuberculosis, and with considerable success. (See my _Man's Debt to the Sun_, Little Blue Book No. 808, Chapter IV.)