The Encyclopedia Americana Volume 12 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...sunlight as a remedial agent they pointed out the evils resulting from excessive insolation. Much has been written within the last century on the remedial value of sunlight. In 1815 Cauvin presented a thesis "on the benefits of insolation"; prior to 1820 Ebernier, Girard, and others discussed the effects of sunlight on animal life; and in 1847 Richter, at Guttingen, wrote on "insolation, or the power of the sun on the human body.- In 1848 Perreira spoke of solar light as a "vivifying and vital stimulus," adding: "In maladies characterized by imperfect nutrition and sanguinification, as scrofula, rickets, and anaemia, and in weakly subjects with oedematous limbs, free exposure to solar light is sometimes attended with the happiest results." The importance of light for healthy growth and development has been recognized by sanitarians for many years. Solaria or sun-rooms are a part of some modern hospitals. Houses and rooms receiving little or no sunlight are unhealthful. In a military barrack at St. Petersburg the mortality was three times greater on the dark than on the light side of the building. Animals and plants living in the dark become bleached, as is celery. Clinical observations show that a want of sunlight produces depression of spirit, lack of energy, loss of appetite, disturbance of digestion, turbid urine, and a kind of homesickness. The face becomes pale (etiolation), the blood is thin, the red corpuscles are diminished, pulse is frequent and weak, palpitations of the heart occur on the slightest exertion, there is muscular debility, little recuperative power, and an increased susceptibility to contagious diseases. Interesting experiments and observations have been made as to light, by Becklard, Becquerel, ...