Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-06-27
THAT NEW WHITE LIGHT.
Experiments With Recent Medical Dis
covery in New York Hospital.

covery in New York Hospital.
In the New York Tribune the following
appears:
Important experiments In the treatment
Of tuberculosis and cancer with the violet
ray and the X-ray have been conducted
for months past at the Flower Hospital
63d street and Eastern Boulevard, by Dr.
William H. King, the consulting physician
of the department of electro therapeutics
At his home, No. Ga West 51st street yes
terday, DR.. King gave to Tribune repor-
ter the results of these experiments.
Hundreds of patients have been treated
for cancer tuberculosis of the bones and
lupus vulgaris which is consumption of the
skin, since the violet ray exper bnents were
begun year ago. and the results have
demonstrated conclusively to the doctor
that the violet ray is excellent for treat
ment of tuberculosis of the skin and few
other skin diseases, eight patients suffering
from lupus vulgaris, considered incurable,
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 or most
cases Of cancers. The 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 treatment is simple. The patient
Is placed near the lamp. and the lenses are
so manipulated that the violet rays are
focused on the diseased spot while the less
refractory heat rays are distributed to the
outer circle. Treatments are continued
twenty to thirty minutes, as there IL no
danger of overexposure as there is with the
X-ray.
DR.. King declared that from his expert
ence with the violet ray in the Flower Hos
pital he was only prepared to say 1t would
cure lupus vulgaris and perhaps erythefma-
tosa, and 1t had affected to a very slight
degree secondary carinoma. With nulner-
GUS other cases Of cancer, however in
which 1t had been tried no results what
ever have been manifest. and In tubercu-
lOSiS of the bones 1t had not even deodor-
lied 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 so
readily to the treatment as primary ones,
yet there had been large per cent of them
cured. If glands were involved, of course.
the prOgnOsts was the more grave, but not
necessarily fatal. In deep seated cancers,
such as In the pelvfs, In the bones and in
the abdomen, the doctor was not prepared
to say that they could be cured, but there
was not the least doubt that the pain could
be greatly relieved. and that life could be
very much prolonged. The doctor believed
that taking the ordinary run Of cancers
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 positively
in regard to the use Of the x-ray with tu-
berculosis OF the chest, but in one case
which was treated the cough disappeared
to such an extent that 1t was impossible to
secure any sputum from which to make
test to see II the tuberculosis had disap-
peared, and which had been found In
abundance before the treatment was begun.