Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-12-25
copyright. 1914. by A. S. Crawl q.
SUNLIGHT AND INFECTIONS.

Inc daily newspapers recently pup
lished the following paragraph: "At
conference of the Association for the
Prevention of Consumption at Leeds,
England, Sir William Osler of Oxford,
formerly of Johns Hopkins university,
startled the audience by the announce
ment that 80 per cent of all people
probably have a small focus or area
of tuberculosis
The audience was startled" by the
assertion only because we habitually
give very little heed to any matter that
does not Immediately concern us indi-
vidually, or that is not forced upon us
by circumstances that compel our con-
centrated attention. The statement has
authorities in substantially the same
words again and again in the past, but
it did not stick" at the time solely for
the reason that few happened to be in
a receptive mood 1t is an undeniable
fact that unless one is in receptive
mood the most obvious and sublime
truth falls on unheeding ears, and in
| this fact we have a most instructive
illustration of the beginning of tuber-
cular disease in our bodies, the prin-
case. For just as the mind must be re-
ceptive to be able to receive, to hold
and to develop truth, so must our
bodies be receptive in order to receive,
hold and develop tubercle bacteria, or
any other bacteria. No life can pos
sibly develop in an unfavorable en-
vironment.
1t is perfectly we'll known among
the medical profession that whatever
may have been the cause of death,
postmortem examinations usually show
a small area where tuberculosis has
existed, but that has been cured" by
natures method of fencing about and
imprisoning any invading matter she
is strong enough to overwhelm. Any
invading bacteria are either devoured
by the white corpuscles or are fenced
about and "encysted" if the organism
has sufficient vitality to fight; but If
there is not sufficient vitality then the
individual becomes one of the 10000
that die annually in this country from
some form of tuberculosis.
We have noted that white sunlight
not only develops plant life, but that
it also, exerts an inhibitory or restrain
ing effect as well. This is clearly
proved by the fact that certain plants
are found to grow faster and taller
under red and blue light than they do
under white light, and that they are
stunted or even killed under green or
violet light.
| We do not know why plants react in
this way, but we have positive proof
that they do. And it is equally certain
that bacteria generally are either
quickly killed OF profoundly modified
by the rays at the violet end Of the
spectrum. 1t should require no great
| strength of the imagination, then, to
understand why we have epidemic out
breaks of pinkeye, influenza, diph-
iberia, sore throat, measles, scarlet
lfever, colds" and the like following
any profound disturbance in meteoro-
| logical conditions that tend to inter
| fere with the normal amount Of pure
sunlight reaching us. Because it mat
tiers not what it may be- whether it 10
smoke, dust from volcanoes, excess
moisture condensing into clouds, col
ored glass, or brick walls and tin
roofs, anything standing between any
living thing and the sun must mate
rally modify that life. Its vitality is
In direct ratio to the amount of energy
received through it's normal line of
connection with the sun.
We prove this with plants by grow
ing them in dark rooms, or under col
ored glass, which Is only simple
means for shutting out such parts of
the spectrum as we desire, and also
it is proved by the extent to which
large areas of growing crops are in
tested with disease during long con-
tinued cloudy weather.
1t has been conclusively proved that
the sum of the work executed by the
animal, and of the heat which 1t gives
out, is exactly equivalent to the chem
ical potential energy taken in with its
food, and this we know can be equal
only to the kinetic energy of the sun
light stored up during the production
of the plant. All the potential energy
Of vegetable matter is converted sun
light.
And today our individual energy is
derived quite directly from that same
source. Four factors are necessary to
produce any plant crop-seed, soil,
moisture and direct sunlight; and the
absence of any one Of the last three
factors will inevitably result either in
total failure Of the seed to terminate
or in some abnormal development
Seed and favorable environment re-
suit in plant growth; and germ,
which is only avery small plant, in an
organism-our bodies, for instance
| is under conditions where there must
result a growth which we have come
+ - ooI sipfantiOn