Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-03-01
Light as a Remedy.

Light as Remedy.
Some years since / called attention
to the necessity of having the direct
rays of light upon persons suffering
from atomic disease and want of irri-
liability, as an aid to the action of
remedies. / also called attention to
the fact that want of light-living
continuously in rooms with a north
ern exposure-was cause of disease.
and should be avoided if possible. In
the time of it, / also called attention
to the experiments made in Paris, of
exposing surgical and other patients
to the direct rays of the sun-the sun
bath. There is material here for con
siderable study and thought, and
every person who is entrusted with
the care and health of a community
should post himself up as to the facts.
We will have first the article on the
Therapeutics of Light" from the
Journal of 1872:
ga very simple experiment will
prove to any one that light is vital
stimulant, and absolutely essential to
healthy life. Give plant all the con-
ditions of growth-a proper soil, tenn
perature, moisture. air--but withhold
light, and though it lives for time,
it becomes pale, feeble, loses function,
and finally dies; under these circum-
stances its re- reproductive powers are
always lost. Place an animal or man
in similar conditions, and we observe
the same results. The same is the
case to less extent when a plant or
animal is only supplied by reflected
light.
"a gross injustice is done to GRIM
inais, and frequently to the insane, by
deprivation of light. No man can be
reformed by Observation-Disclosures en-
tails physical and moral degradation
in every case. If man is TO be re-
formed, give HIM sunlight freely. If
the poor of our cities are 20 be eie-
waited in the scale of humanity, the
first step is to open broad ways for
the admission of sunlight, and build
tenement houses with windows so sit
uated and SO large that direct sun
light may rsach every portion of the
rooms.
"Applying the principle in the prac-
tice of medicine, / would have an
abundant supply of light in all cases
of disease except those in which there
is an excess of stimulus. Failures in
treatment are frequently made by ne
gleot in this regard. Sometimes in
cities we find the sick in rooms which
are only supplied by artificial light !;
and in both city and country quite
frequently in rooms that have only re-
Elected light. In slight cases of acute
or sthenic disease, we may treat them
in such situations, but in asthenic dis
ease never. Even the dark corner of
a room, otherwise well lighted, is OBJ
jectionable.
ain any case where the nutritive pro-
cesses are impaired from atony, we
want the stimulus of direct sunshine
"a "sun-batb." Thus. in paris it has
been conclusively proven, that in an
endemic of hospital erysipelas, all
remedies found useless, sun-batb was
curative-the patients being placed
on cots in the open air, and exposed
TO the direct rays. | have obtained
most marked advantage in many cases
by wheeling the bed before the win
dow, that the patient might receive
direct sunlight.
"In cases of local disease, / am sat
isfied that a direct sHn-bath to the
part will often be found of marked adj
vantage. Use white light, blue light,
yellow or red light, as may be indi
Gated. recollecting the properties of
the different colors.
"Refected light is to some extent
polarized, and in this proportion has
lost its stimulant properties. We may
regard it in the same way as cleo
tricity-light is electricity (D. Di.
rect light is positive, polarized light
is negative. The electrician finds
that there is difference many times,
but just what he can hardly tell. Very
certainly, living in polarized light will
sometimes produce disease, as it will
sometimes cure it. Take, for instance,
the double windows in use in the
North and East, and the occupants of
room may live in such light, and
will surely suffer an impairment of
life. This will be greater if the win
dow have north exposure, and the
light is reflected from frozen snow
Light reflected from water is also
polarized."
The reader will notice that these
are most important facts, and that we
cannot ignore them with safety. We
must have light for healthy lives, even
our moral life is dependent upon this
to very considerable extent. Ozark
ness entails physical and moral deg
radiation" Light is natures stimu.
liant, darkness natures sedative.
Light is for activity, darkness is for
rest.
Now physicists tell us that light
may be decomposed-that is, it is a
compound force, and we may have
either of seven primary colors. each
of wich has distinctive properties.
These, it has been proven, exert dit