1904-5. | NiEts R. FinsEN—HIs#LIFE AND WoRK. I19 
treatment, the time necessary to effect a cure, and the expense of the 
apparatus. 
Finsen’s first patient for treatment by the concentrated chemical 
rays, had been trying for eight years since the lupus had appeared, various 
forms of treatmen* without avail; the side of his face had been operated 
on twenty-five times; had been cut, scraped, burned with acids and with 
hot irons. In the autumn of 1895 Finsen began to put his theory to the 
test. The apparatus used was of the simplest description; the rays from 
an ordinary electric are light were converged upon the diseased side of 
the face daily for one or two hours, by means of a hand lens, a reading 
magnifying glass, the heat rays being filtered out by passing through blue 
solution in a glass capsule. In six months the patient was cured, and 
the irritant chemical ray, so harmful where small-pox is concerned, was 
proved a stimulant, and a positive curative agent in lupus vulgaris. 
Finsen saw at once the possibilities of light cure in this and similar 
conditions, but recognized that in order to carry on the treatment pro- 
perly, expensive apparatus was necessary, and a suitable place for patients 
Fic. 4—Pressure Lens of Rock Crystal with cooling device. 
undergoing treatment. All this required money and he was a poor man. 
At first, of course, there was much scepticism manifested, as this disease 
had hitherto proved so refractory to all manner of treatment. But soon 
two wealthy Danes, Mr. G. A. Hagemann and Mr. Vilh. Jorgensen came 
to his aid with financial assistance, and largely through their generosity 
the Light Institute was founded in Copenhagan, in April, 1896. The 
Commune Hospital of Copenhagen, the municipal hospital, gave space 
in its gardens for several small buildings, and in these Finsen’s experi- 
ments went on, in more extensive form. Such good work was done at the 
Institute, that the Danish Government came to its support, the State 
granted a loan free of interest, and on August 12th, 1901, the Institute 
was removed to Rosenvaenget, a pleasant suburb of Copenhagen, and 
was also considerably enlarged, being comfortably housed in a handsome 
stone building with large airy and bright rooms, and provision for treating 
two hundred patients daily. It contains laboratories and a clinic for the 
carrying out of phototherapy, and particularly for the treatment of lupus 
and other diseases of the skin by concentrated chemical light. The pro- 
gram of the Institute is, ‘“To make and support scientific research con- 
