Phototherapy : (1) the chemical rays of light and small-pox--(2) light as a stimulant--(3) the treatment of lupus vulgaris by concentrated chemical rays / by Niels R. Finsen ; translated from the German edition, and with an appendix on the light treatment of lupus ; by James H. Sequeira.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Phototherapy : (1) the chemical rays of light and small-pox--(2) light as a stimulant--(3) the treatment of lupus vulgaris by concentrated chemical rays / by Niels R. Finsen ; translated from the German edition, and with an appendix on the light treatment of lupus ; by James H. Sequeira. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    the skin is only slightly pigmented (blondes) than in others. Albinos suffer severely. It is in the spring that the skin is most easily affected, not because there are more chemical rays at this season, hut because the epidermis and the pigment which it contains are weakened—used up during the winter.^ Naturally, the parts most exposed to vertical light—the bridge of the nose and the cheeks, for instance—are those which react the most. The tourists upon the glaciers often suffer from a solar erythema, as I have already mentioned, because the fields of ice reflect the rays of light, and especially the chemical rays. But here the light comes from below, and for tliis reason tlie skin of the lower part of the nose and of the chin are particularly affected. In summer the skin has received its protective layer of pigment, and inflammation is rarer. It is localized chiefly between the pigmented regions of the skin and those unpigmented, where a very clear line of demarcation is so often seen. In the spring, rowing-men. as I have already said, are often subject to well-marked erythema solare. After a first excursion of some duration made in the sun, their arms become the seat of a violent inflam- mation, which attains its maximum on the following eveniim or nii^ht. One evenino’ I saw two oarsmen with their arms red, dark, and swollen, com})elled by pain to rest them upon the table, fearing the ' I here allude to phenomena observed in northern countries (Denmark).