New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-06-26
THE LIGHT THAT CURES'
Use of the Tiolet Ray and X Ray IN
the Flo7cer Hospital.

1n,nortant experiments In the treatment of
.,hercuIoeis and cancer with the violet ray and
tho Y raw have been conducted for months past
at the Flower Hospital Sixty-third-st ana East
ern Boulevard, by DR. William H. King, the COLI
sulting physician of the department OF electro
therapeutics. At his home No 81 west FIFTY
frst-st., yesterday. DR., King gave to tribune
reporter the results of these experiments
Hundreds of patients have been treated for
cancer, tuberculosis of the bones and lupus Vui-
garis which is consumption of the skin. since
the violet ray experiments We're begun year
ago. and the results have demonstrated con-
clusively to the doctor that the violet ray is ex-
cellent for treatment of tuberculosis OF the SKIN
and few other skin diseases, eight patients sui
fering from lupus vulgaris. considered 1ncura-
BILE, having been greatly benefited or wholly
cured by this treatment 1t has not been found,
however to be good for tuberculosis of the bones
and joints, ulcers most cases of cancers. Inc
violet ray requires a long time for treatment, but
the cures perfect, leaving so little scar
that the time may be comparatively disregarded.
The violet ray is the violet ray of the white
light. and for therapeutic purposes is produced
by the arc electric light The method of treat
nent is simple. The patient is placed near the
lamp, and the lenses are SO manipulated that
the violet rays focused on the diseased spot,
while the less refractory heat rays are distrib-
uted to the outer circle. Treatments are con-
tinued twenty to thirty minutes there is no
danger of overexposure as there is with the
X ray.
DR.. King declared that from his experience
with the violet ray in the Flower Hospital he
only prepared to say it would cure lupus
vulgaris, and perhaps erythematosa, and it had
affected to q very slight degree a secondary
carcinoma. With numerous other cases of can
GER however in which it had been tried
suits whatever have been manifest and in
tuberculosis of the bones It had not even de-
odorized the discharge, let alone decreasing it.
Regarding the experiments with X rays in the
Flower Hospital DR.. King said that secondary
cancers have not yielded readily to the treat
ment primary ones, yet there had been a
large per cent of them cured. If glands were
involved, of course, the prognoss was the more
grave, but necessarily fatal. In deep seat
ed cancers, such as in the pelvis in the bones
and in the abdomen. the doctor not pre-
pared to say that they could be cured, but there
not the least doubt that the pain could be
greatly relieved, and that life could be very
much prolonged. The doctor believed that TAX
ing the ordinary of cancers. a much greater
per cent could be cured by the X ray than by
operative measures. In fact, eight cases had
been cured which had been operated upon,
which had returned to the hospital and in which
the surgeons were utterly helpless to do any
more. DR.. King was not prepared to speak posi-
lively in regard to the of the ray with
tuberculosis OF the chest but in which
was treated the cough disappeared to such
extent that 1t impossible to secure any
Sputum from which to make a test see if the
tuberculosis had disappeared. and which had
been found in abundance before the treatment
was begun.