1904-5.] NIELS R. FINSEN—HiIs LiFE AND WORK 123 
is not lost, for the advent of the smaller and cheaper instruments has 
opened up a far wider field for treatment than would fall to the lot of 
the Finsen light proper, in diseases due to germs, parasites and fungi, 
and not so deeply seated as is lupus. Indeed, many of the apparently 
hopeless cases of lupus itself are amenable to the iron electrode arc rays, 
even after twenty-five years’ standing. 
Finsen’s assistants have played no small role in the development of 
the minor instruments of iron are and others, for, being thoroughly un- 
selfish, he encouraged all who were trying to improve on his methods. 
Then, another thing happened. In the quest for a substitute for the 
time-consuming lamp, the x-rays were tried, and it is an undoubted and 
chronicled fact, that the first successful use of the x-ray as a curative 
agent, was in the treatment of the same disease, lupus vulgaris, in which 
the light treatment was so successful. This is more than a mere coinci- 
dence. And it is interesting to note that the only hitherto successful 
claimant to the honour of being able to cure this horrible disease in its 
worst forms is the x-ray. And, to-day, the very best treatment consists 
in the careful discriminating use of these two agents as the main features; 
anything else of value is merely secondary. Which is one more debt we 
owe Finsen. 
And the vast fields opened up, not merely in diseases of a purely 
local nature, but in those of a general character also, add fresh lustre to 
this already most brilliant reputation, and attest anew how deep and how 
full.of hidden riches were the caverns of knowledge he explored, and how 
unfailing and far reaching was his greed for light, and to know what it 
was and what it could do. He planted, and we are only beginning to 
reap the harvest, and to realize in a very small measure how well he wrought 
and how much we owe to him. 
It was but natural that such a self-sacrificing student of nature and 
her wondrous hidden ways should attract to him kindred spirits, warmed 
by his enthusiasm, cheered by his counsel, encouraged by his example, 
fired with his ambition to know all, letting nothing escape their keen 
scrutiny, and alike with him exact with exceeding exactness. And such 
indeed was the case. 
It was his privilege and in part his reward, to surround himself with 
many such, and the results of their combined labours merit naught but 
unstinted praise for the accuracy of their observations, and the clear 
manner in which they have elucidated many a problem otherwise obscure, 
and for their exactitude in chronicling the time in which the different 
sources and varieties of energy produced certain effects, establishing 
