Abstract
ATTENTION has recently been directed again to the therapeutic action ot ultra-violet rays by the publication of a paper in the Lancet of January 8, in which a source of light invented by Mr. Simpson was referred to. There is nothing novel, of course, in the, fact that certain forms of disease may be cured by exposure to light of wave-length ranging from 300 μμ to 90 μμ, but the discovery of a new ultra-violet lamp raises many questions of wide interest. Dr. Sidney Russ has now shown, however, that an arc simply produced between two tungsten rods exactly simulates the so-called “Simpson light,” and it is evident that the powerful source of ultra-violet rays thus obtained will prove of service in the treatment of all those superficial lesions which Finsen and others have proved to be favourably affected by this type of radiation. Dr. Russ has further pointed out that even one-tenth of a millimetre of human skin readily absorbs a large part of the ultra-violet rays from this arc, and that less than one per cent, passes to a depth of one millimetre.
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Therapeutic Action of Ultraviolet Rays . Nature 97, 19 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/097019b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/097019b0