114 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoLr. VIIL 
merely temporary, but of long duration, and by causing a dilatation of the 
vessels and a more active blood supply, better nutrition of the skin is 
promoted, and greater functional activity. In Finsen’s sunlight baths, 
the patients walk naked about a courtyard; to avoid the production of 
perspiration, water is frequently sprinkled about or douched over the 
patients. In the electric light bath, the room is divided by radiating 
partitions, and the patients lie naked upon couches. In the middle of 
the room, about six feet from the floor, a couple of large arc lights of 100 
amperes are suspended. The temperature of the room is kept so low 
that artificial heat is necessary to prevent chilling of the patients. 
But Finsen’s greatest victory was yet to be won. Not content with 
the debt he had laid the world under already, he must invade yet another 
stronghold of disease, and conquer. 
There is a disease quite common in some climes, not so frequent in 
our highly favored land which has so much to be thankful for, but present 
even here; a disease which was formerly thought to be cancer, and was 
called by the laity ‘‘wolf-cancer,’’ but now is ascribed to the presence in 
the skin of the same germ (bacillus tuberculosis) which causes consumption 
when attacking the lungs or other parts. It is not called cancer any more 
by those who know, but its old name sticks to it, and it is called ‘‘wolf”’ 
just the same; Lupus Vulgaris, common lupus, the Latin term for wolf. 
It well deserves its name, for it is a cruel, gnawing, wolfish thing, rarely 
conquered, except at the cost of great scars. Attacking chiefly the face; 
sometimes the nose, or the lip, or the cheek; going on, sparing nothing, 
gnawing away, rarely killing directly, but leaving behind such disfigure- 
ment often, that death would be a glad relief indeed. ‘‘Hideous muti- 
lation may be produced, destruction of the eyes, contraction of the 
mouth.’’* 
But Finsen has been thinking as he wrought, and has caught a glimpse 
of a ray of hope, and bids the whole world rejoice with him and share anew 
in the glad pean of praise that has been reverberating down through the 
countless ages since ‘‘the morning stars sang together,’’ the praise of 
light. 
In 1897 Finsen gave to the world his epoch-making paper entitled, 
“The Treatment of Lupus Vulgaris by Concentrated Chemical Rays,” 
a form of treatment he had been putting to a practical test for two years, 
ever since 1895. Init he starts off by noting that the powerful germ-kil- 
ling influence of light is now well recognized, hence, theoretically every- 
thing is in favour of its use in superficial skin diseases caused by germs, 
but its use for this purpose has been practically neglected. Some had 
* Jacobi-Pringle, ‘‘ Dermachromes.”’ 
