The Sculptor Sun
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, the greatest English- woman who ever lived, was the first of those in the nineteenth century whom I call the Heralds of the Dawn. In an article on Nursing she wrote that "The sun .is not only a painter, he is also a sculptor." The sun is indeed a painter, making all the colour in the sky, in our fields, our gardens, and in our cheeks—or all that is worth looking at : but he is also a sculptor, building up young growing bodies in the round, moulding their bones and making men and women of them. _How Florence Night- ingale knew this then I cannot imagine : the insight_ .of genius is too deep for us to peer into. In 1890, Dr. T. A. Palm, a returned medical missionary, showed by -world-wide geographical comparison that wherever children have their share of sunlight there is no rickets, and vice versd. Dr. Palm is still alive at a great age, and President of our Sunlight League.: When this subject was discussed at. the International Child Welfare Congress in Geneva. a few years ago I was proud to say that Britain bears the Palm.
'But a whole generation has been lost since the 'quiet country doctor published his great discovery. The most recent inquiry shows that more than half the three-year- olds in this country have well-marked rickety conditions in their bones at this moment. No wonder that on the Continent they call rickets the English disease. In Sheffield Mrs. May Mellanby has shown that the laws which control the healthy development of bones apply to our teeth also. Our notoriously bad teeth in this country go with the prevalence of rickets : for Mrs. Mellanby has shown that it is the rickety teeth which are most liable to decay.
But complete unpolluted sunlight is the -sotereign preventive and remedy for rickets. Even artifieial sunlight serves perfectly. My friend Dr.' Rollier has translated into French my phrase, "the diseases of darkness," and says that rickets is "la ntaladie de l'ontbre par excellence." We -must dissipate this deadly, deform- ing, devitalizing shadow, and restore the light of life t4 Our children.
The light, playing upon the skin, actually makes therein the Vitamin D, or anti-rachitic vitamin. Certain foods, such as butter and cod liver oil, are very rich in Vitamin D: and it is certain that the use of such foods is an alternative way of getting Vitiimin a into the blood. Best of all would it be to ensure that all children had their share both of light and of the right kinds of food.
This is the worst time of year, of _course. In New York it has been shown that the blood of babies becomes im- poverished during the winter, especially in lime and phosphorus; which make the chief building material of bones ; and that the number of new cases of rickets steadily increases until March, whereas there are no new cases in midsummer. Our problem is very formid- able in our dark, smoke-ridden cities. No help from real sunlight can be expected in them until the spring. we' must learn to use the anti-rachitie foods, and we must provide as many artificial sunlight lamps as poSsibl'efcii our urban childhood. And meanwhile- we must preptiré. our minds for great reforms in our ideas of town planning, and notably of school architecture and design. • The anti-rachitic foods are those .rich in Vitamin :D, which has been first made by the, ultra-violet.constifiient:s- ,, of sunlight. Good milk—but not Winter milk made *by. light-starved cows fed on- brewers' graicis .hd such-like-- the cream and butter of such milk,. cod-liver-oil and its concentrate " Ostelin," are the most valuable Of ,;Ae anti-rachitic fOods. All begin in green leaves in sunlight. Then , we learn, from Wisconsin and New York, that artificially produced ultra-violet light will create Vita- min D in many food materials otherwise to beregardeci . . as second-rate : and, from Professor Mellanby in, .Shef-, field, that Such light will remove -the rickets-producing factor. in 'such foods as oatmeal. Surely we shall soon, generally -adopt the suggestion made by- myself three years ago—that the lamps which our hospitals are every= where installing as, fast as possible should never be idle, for when patientsare not .being treated by them they-
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should either be irradiating suitable foods used by patients and staff, or they: should be giving:fight baths to .the: "night-nurses, whose health, like that of all other night- - m;orkers, invariably deteriorates owing; as I believe, to Jack of sunlight. ' The provision of artificial sunlight- for rickety children proceeds apace, with uniform and signal success every- where. It is impossible without electric current. The 'gas- ndustry- serves Us incalculably by giving us the SMokeless fuels, gas and coke, which have already reduced in marked and saving measure the fogs of London and other cities: but only electricity serves for ultra-violet lamps. Here I need only add that expectant and nursing mothers should get their share of irradiation, for them- selves and their children. The Manchester Municipal :Sun Clinic records most signal and unprecedented results in. the restoration of breast-feeding by this means. As for the principle expressed in the " Open-Air School," that has been lately discussed in these pages: but the open-air school is not really a school in the sun, nor even an open-air school at all until we can liberate snore than face and hands from the stuffy, dark and humid atmosphere which we make for our skin under our customary clothing. To leave the sunlight, as I have seen on the Riviera with these horrified eyes, in order to go and have an artificial light bath, is only comparable to waking your patient in order to give him a sleeping draught. • Of course, I know that in this country the great majority prefer a fashion of life which they regard as normal and sensible, as against the teaching of the "fresh air fiends." The accepted practice makes rickets, tuberculosis, and the rest of the diseases of darkness: the" new" practice, as. old as Hippocrates and the hills, cures them. Which is right? If you doubt, or if you doubt not, pray serve yourself and our country by sending is. lid. to the Sunlight League, 29 Gordon Square, W.C. 1, for the new number of . its journal, Sunlight.
"Our toil from thought all glorious forms shall cull To make this earth, our home; more beautiful :
. •; And Science and her sister Poesy .Shall clothe in light the fields and cities of the free."
CRUSADER.
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