Honolulu Republican, Volume IV, Number 492, 9 January 1902 — Sunlight an Old Rentoy. [ARTICLE]

Sunlight an Old Rentoy.

Professor Finsen. of Copenhagen. has r*=‘ eived much praise for the * cires which ho has effected by means of sunlight; but n- w Mr. M. ti. Ck se. an English scientist, points out tha* this method of curing certain diseases was known and practise! in England centuries ago. s ln ISS3.' he says. Professor Fin sen proposed that patients suffering from smallpox should be kept in rooms which the chemical rays of light bad been excluded by means of red curtains or red glass In this treatment, however, he was anticipated by John Gaddesden. who wrote the famous medical treatise. Rosa Medicinae. and who died in 1361. He cured a son of King Edward !. by wrapping him in scarlet cloth avd placing him in a bed and room with scarlet bangings He says of iht result—‘Est bona cura: et curavi cum in sequent! sine vestigio variolarum.' “ which means that the treatment was effective for the patient recovered and never showed any trace of >mall pcx. There is also evidence that othe physicians besides Gaddesdm believed in the virtues of photoherapy and adopted it when they desired to cure certain forms of skin disease. (—X. V. Herald.