Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-09-22
SUNLIGHT'S THERAPEUTIC VALUE.
An Apparatus for Concentrating the Rays
Of the Sun on the Body.

Most interesting to the scientific
world are the experiments in p%hotogra-
ply that have just been completed by
DR.. J. W. Kline, of Dodge City, Ia, the
founder and for many years editor of
the Iowa Medical Journal. He has been
working with a view Of ascertaining
the penetrative power of sunlight into
the tissues of the human body. His ex-
periments with the actinic rays of the
u in the treatment of tuberculosis
have attracted wide attention, his con-
tention being that sunlight, always
powerful as a bactericide, can be used
with salutary results in a~nnihilating the
tubercle bacillus in the human body.
His records of test include many hun
dreds of cases, and the results thus far
have been surprisingly gratifying. Sun
baths in concentrated sunshine, an
abundance of fresh air and moderate
exercise-that is his system of treat
ment for consumption.
Being DESTROYS Of knowing the extent
of the penetration Of light into the HUI
man tissues, DR.. Kline undertook some
interesting experiments that have end
ed in demonstrating that sunlight, like
the X-ray, is capable of passing COM
pletely through the human body.
He has devised a method of photo
graphing through the body. The direct
rays of sunlight falling on the reflector,
which is a huge concave mirror covered
with blue glass, were separated, the |
chemical rays being focused on the
chest Of the subject, on whose back had
been fastened the Photographic plate on
which a picture was to be taken. The
plate was applied with the greatest
care, SO that all the light save the rays
that penetrated the body should be ex-
Guided. A transparency IN glass of a
valley in the Klondike wa used as the
original from which the picture was to
taken. This was fastened to a photo
graphic dry plate, that had never been
exposed to light, and the two were
placed on the back between the Shout
Ter blades Of a well-developed man
Weighing 100 pounds, the transparency
'eing placed next the skin with the SEN
'itive plate Immediately behind it. Over
his were placed black paper, cotton
vadding, surgeons plaster and black
10th in alternate layers. The focused
light was then thrown on the chest for
fifteen minutes, when the subject was
emoved to a dark room, the plate re-
moved and developed.
All possible sources Of error were stu
eliminated, and the operation
vas performed repeatedly under vary
ng conditions, always with the same
esult; the concentrated sunlight pene-
the mans body. To determine
whether contact with the developed
late or the heat from the body had
ny influence on the new plate, several
lates were exposed as before, but with
ut the sunlight on the chest. The
lates thus treated showed absolutely
10 change.
All Of these photographs were taken
With such scientific exactness that they
stablish the fact that the actinic or
hemical rays of the sun, when suffi-
iently concentrated, may be made to
entirely through the body of a full :
Y developed man.
The rays Of light pass through the
kin with considerable difficulty, more
eadily through the muscular tissues, :
most readily through bone. In pro-
ucing a picture through the cheek the
ight passes through a single thickness
+ skin, and the picture is reproduced :
lmost instantly.
AS these studies were all conducted
Nth a view to their establishing the :
values Of sunlight, it is a
Of Importance to note the struc-
ures through which light must pass in
eaching the deepest parts Of the lungs.
here Is the single thickness of skin,
he semi-transparent sternum and ribs,
few thin muscles, and the light has
cached the lungs, themselves almost
Wholly composed of thin walled air
ellis. Light. then, must reach even to !
he posterior thoracic walls. As light Is .
he best bactericlde known, and as the !
avs Of the sun contain principles that
re essential to plant and animal life,
his fact Is regarded as one Of vital i'm |
ortance in the treatment Of diseases I
( bactericidal origin, situated in the
organs. I