Röntgen rays and electro-therapeutics - with chapters on radium and phototherapy (1910) (14778166283)

Identifier: rntgenrayselectr00kass (find matches)
Title: Röntgen rays and electro-therapeutics : with chapters on radium and phototherapy
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Kassabian, Mihran Krikor, 1870-1910
Subjects: Electrotherapeutics X-rays Phototherapy Radiology Radiotherapy
Publisher: Philadelphia & London : J.B. Lippincott Company
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School



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ore,is a source of ultra-violet rays, possessing an actinic power superior tothat furnished by any previous apparatus^ The Finsen or Red Light Treatment of Smallpox. To Niels Finsen (Fig. 245), more than any one else, the civilizedworld owes a debt of gratitude for his untiring industry and indefatigableresearch in bringing the subject of the therapeutic action of light to thenotice of the medical profession, and for having established his teachingsupon a rational basis. So profound an impression did he make upon theminds of scientists that, in 1896, the government of Denmark founded apublic institution for the purpose of carrying out the principles of photo-therapy, and especially for the treatment of lupus and other cutaneousaffections through the agency of concentrated chemical light. From 1893 until almost the very day of his death, Finsen had beenbusily engrossed in the study and action of light treatment, but it is his ^ Archives of the Rontgen Eay, vol. xiii, No. 2, July, 1908.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 245.—The Late Professor Niels R. Finsen.—(Born in Faroe Island, Iceland, December 15,1860. Studied medicine at Copenhagen University and received his doctors degree in 1890. Awardedthe Nobel Prize and the Cameron Prize for studies in practical therapeutics from the University ofEdinburgh. Died September 24,1905.) PHOTOTHERAPY. 519 labor to prevent the pitting from variola by excluding all but the redlight that has won him deserved renown. From his experiments at Copenhagen, he was able to prove that theblue, indigo, violet, and ultra-violet rays of the solar spectrum are theones, and the only ones, that produce chemical effects upon animaltissues. As far back as the sixteenth century, it vvas empirically recognizedthat the pitting from smallpox could be obviated by shading the doorsand windows of the room with curtains of red material. Indeed, the useof this color fabric was first suggested by John of Gadesden in the four-teenth century, of whom Gregory remarked, ^What think