Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-24
TREATMENT OF DISEASE
THE Sun AND AIR AS REMEDIES FOR
THE ILLS OF MANKIND.
Methods Of Cure other Than by the
Use Of Drugs or Convex
tiOnal Medicines.
From the Literary Digest.

From the Literary Digest.
There was a time when the treatment of
disease by other methods than the admin
istration of medicine was almost exclu-
sively in the hands of quacks. Nowadays,
however, the man who objects to drugs
need not go outside the ranks Of legitimate
practitioners to get other forms of treat
ment. and he who Is willing to leave no
stone unturned to bring about cure can
supplement his medicines with a whole
battery Of effective therapeutic agents that
were almost unknown, or at least unused.
few years ago. M. Alfred de Vaulabelle
writes this subject In Paris Cosmos of
June %. Instead of resorting almost ex-
clusively to drugs, physicians. he says, are
beginning to utilize energy in It's multiple
forms We know that air, when pure. per-
forms, through the oxygen that it contains.
the functions of nutrition; that 1t possesses
special properties according to it's compo-
sition; that dry air. moist air. cold air, hot
air. that which prevails on the sea or the
coast, the atmosphere of the plains and
that OF the forests, are factors Of which
We must take account and whose effects
on the organisms are more appreciabie
than Is generally believed Like air, light
has very great influence on our organs.
1t Is one of the most active stimulants Of
animal and vegetable energy, tina. which
contributes especially TO the development
method of treatment called heliothe-apy,
we are told by the writer. has now been
adopted for the benefit of the nervous sys-
tenn. Near Trieste, in the mountains of
Carniola, at an altitude Of 2. 800 feet. neu-
rasthenics are made to take actual ''sun
baths which cure them in a short time.
Sun and Electric Light.
DR.. Ffnsen OF Copenhagen, inventor or
'phototherapy," has cured in a few months
very refractory diseases of the skin. In
his phototherapic institute at Lysyria he
has cured 800 out Of 400 cases of lupus,
that frightful germ disease that SO dis
figures the countenance. and he has sue
cessfully treated various cancerous mala-
dies and even tuberculosis. He employs
not only sunlight. but also the electric arc.
NJ. de Vaulabelle continues:
1.-The purifying action of the suns rays
is such that. according to Marshall. the
spores of anthrax. one of the most hardy
baclli known. rapidly become incapable of
terminating in sunlight Bacteria, even
when they are not destroyed by light, are
affected that the fermentS or toxins
that they secrete are profoundly modified
in their specific virulence. We shall not
dwell long on the good effects of thermo-
therapy.' 'hydrotherapy and electrother-
apy.' Every one knows the important
part played by heat in medicine and the
favorable results obtained by subjecting
the extremities Of sick persons to high
temperatures. The oven of NJ. Tha1lar-
man enables us to raise the temperature in
dry air to go and 2G6 degrees Fahrenheit
without occasioning the iIsuupOrtab1e pain
caused by vapor baths. In contrast to
thermotherapy we have frigotherapy, whose
applications become daily more numerous.
NJ. Raoul Pictet greatly lowers the exte-
rior temperature of the patient without
causing any other sensation than an agree
able freshness. Often the patient rises
from the treatment with an appetite that
what is better still, cured of the nervous
trouble the indigestion from which he
has perhaps suffered for a ong time.
Finally, sufferers from tuberculosis regain
appetite that has long failed them when
frequent applications of solid carbonic acid
are made to the stomach
The Uses of Water.
Thanks to hydrotherapy, the practice of
which dates only from 1897 and is due to
peasant of Groefenberg, in Silesia. very
large number of nvalids have been reliev-
ed. 1t is to Priessnitz that we owe the first
establishment for undertaking the treat
ment of patients with cold water-a method
at first badly managed. but since modified
by able physicians. 1t now renders signal
services in almost all chronic affections eX-
cept those of the heart and lungs.
Extraordinarily also does good daily. It's
application dates from 1740 when Jalabert
first advised static electricity for the treat
ment of certain maladies. But it is only
since the Investigations of Manduyt, Du-
boneix. Poma, Sarlandiere, Prof. Jules Col
quet, DIR. Duchesne, j. Guitard and A.
Becquerel. that dynamic electricity mas
been used successfully in treating neuralgia
affections. and particularly sciatica, mus
cular rheumatism, hyperesthesia, anesthe-
STA. the paralysis of sense organs, &c. BY
means of the high-frequency currents OBJ
tanned with D'Arsonyars apparatus we are
now able to cure nervous maladies and dis
eases of exhaustion. Placed in the center
of large cylinder formed by spirally
wound wire through which the current
passes, the patient Is subjected. without
actual contact with the conductor. and
without feeling the least discomfort, to
treatment whose good effects he feels at
once.
Finally. by mechanotherapy. several in
situations for which exist in Paris and
abroad we are enabled to restore vitality
to the muscles by giving them appro-
pirate movements. and by yibrotherapy we
can cure some cases of neuralgia by ma
ta1 fhrot