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Analyzing, Sunshine Power of the Violet Ray 
^■p^ v ^ L EG END OF OLD FRANCE.— Very 
1 m\«lf likel y some °f our readers have read 
EmmtoKfh\ “Lazarre,” a story based on one of 
the legends regarding the French 
Dauphin. This name was given to 
the heir-apparent of France. So far as we can learn 
no one knows what became of the eldest son of 
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Most likely he was 
quietly killed at about the time his mother was be¬ 
headed, but there are several legends about him. 
In one of them, brought put in this story “Lazarre,” 
it is reported that he came to America and was 
brought up among the Indians. He went back to 
France and, as the story goes, was thrown into 
prison by Napoleon. While there he missed his life 
in the open air but endured the prison life because, 
as he said, he had “soaked his system full of sun¬ 
shine.” 
THE SUN BATH.—Thousands of men and women 
like this supposed Dauphin have learned that there 
is some health stimulant in direct sunshine. We 
all know how the entire body responds when we 
can come out of doors and work or play in the 
direct rays of the sun—suitably protected. Most of 
us have seen invalids at hospitals put out for a 
“sun bath” even in cold weather—out from under 
cover where the sun may shine directly upon them. 
What mother does not know instinctively that her 
baby is far better off out of doors? In this city 
we often see babies sleeping in their carriages out 
on the sidewalks where the sun may shine upon 
them. Their faces and eyes are pro¬ 
tected, but as far as possible their lit¬ 
tle bodies enjoy a sun bath, for it has 
been shown that this form of a bath 
is next to a water bath or even beyond 
it in promoting baby’s health. 
VIOLET RAYS.—These things have 
long been known from practice and ob¬ 
servation but only in recent years have 
the scientists been able to tell us why 
sunshine is so effective. It seems at 
first thought to be getting down to a 
very fine point to say that sunshine 
has been analyzed, but that is what it 
amounts to. For sunshine is made up 
of various kinds of rays and after long 
and patient experiment it has been 
found that the violet rays have a 
vital effect upon the living system. In 
a way these violet rays seem to be 
somewhat analogous to the mysterious 
vitamines which are said to be so nec¬ 
essary in our food. When we under¬ 
stand that common window glass may 
strain these violet rays out of the sun¬ 
shine we are prepared to consider the 
interesting experiments recently re¬ 
ported from Maine. 
POULTRY EXPERIMENTS.—These 
experiments were conducted by Dr. C. 
C. Little of the University of Maine 
and Dr. W. T. Bovie of the Harvard 
Medical School. During the Summer 
233 chickens were fed and handled 
exactly alike, except that some of them 
were kept in the open air exposed to 
the direct sunshine, others were kept 
under window glass, while still others 
were exposed to “ultra-violet rays.” 
This meant that they were exposed for 
15 mimites each day to rays from a 
veloped this disease. Many of our readers have no 
doubt seen cases of “rickets” in children. The bones 
are soft and fail to develop properly. There is a 
failure to deposit lime and phosphorus in the bone. 
No doubt this is often the cause of “leg weakness” 
in chicks. We know, of course, that there are many 
cases in young animals and children where this 
failure to make bone properly is due to a defect in 
the diet—there being a lack of minerals in the food. 
In the case of these chickens, however, the food con¬ 
tained all needed bone-forming elements. The fail¬ 
ure to make good bone growth in such cases was 
due to a failure in metabolism, or the chemistry 
which is worked out in the living body. The scien¬ 
tists conclude that these violet rays are essential to 
the development of the living chemistry through 
which the bone growth of the body is produced. As 
they put it: “For some unknown reason, without ex¬ 
posure to ultra-violet rays these salts . although in 
the blood, do not deposit in the bone.” 
THE SUNNY SIDE.—That sentence gives in a 
nut shell what this experiment means. It is the 
clearest explanation we have had yet, why young 
stock on the sunny side of the barn or children 
playing in the sunshine are always in better shape— 
food and care being equal—than young stock kept 
in dark stables or children kept indoors under glass. 
The practical application of these discoveries will 
be worked out later. It is evident that broilers may 
be grown larger and more rapidly under some such 
stimulating influence. Dr. Bovie thinks that ex¬ 
posure to these violet rays, through di¬ 
rect sunshine, may help in the deposits 
of lime and phosphorus needed in pro¬ 
ducing the shell in egg production. We 
should hesitate about applying these 
stimulating methods to breeding stock. 
Most breeders agree that they do not 
care to use the lights at night on breed¬ 
ing stock. It may be possible to use 
such lamps of fused glass in the hen¬ 
house at night. Beyond the sound ad¬ 
vice of keeping little children in the 
direct sunlight as much as possible, we 
doubt the wisdom of using any greater 
stimulation for their growth. We 
would rather have them make normal 
progx*ess, for they are not to be sold as 
broilers. The cost of manufacturing 
this glass from fused quartz will pre¬ 
clude its general xise for some time, but 
Dr. Bovie says that a window of this 
glass has been produced, and will be 
used for experiments at Johns Hop¬ 
kins University for filtering sunlight 
upon children suffering from rickets. 
FURTHER POSSIBILITIES. — It 
seems to have been made clear from 
these experiments that these violet 
rays do have a distinct effect upon the 
deposits of lime and phosphorus in the 
bones, and Dr. Bovie goes further in 
speaking of the possibilities of these 
discoveries: 
“In this respect there is a similarity 
between plants and animals, for it is a 
well-known fact that in plants there may 
be a great abundance of sugar in the 
sap, but this sugar is not deposited to 
form woody tissue without exposure to 
light. 
“We take advantage of this fact when 
we bleach celery. The celery contains 
an abundance of sugar and tastes sweet, 
but the mechanical supporting tissue fails 
to develop. The celery is tender and 
mercury vapor lamp which sent the rays through 
a glass made from fused quartz. This form of glass 
permits these violet rays to pass through it, while 
it has been found that common window glass 
‘ strains” these rays out of the sunshine. 
RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENTS.—The re¬ 
sults of these experiments are partly shown in the 
P. & A. Photos. 
Chicks four weeks of age. The larger one shows effect 
of violet rays. 
pictures. The chicks which received the full sun¬ 
shine grew normally—about as good birds usually 
do. The chicks grown under glass developed rickets, 
while of those receiving the violet rays not one de¬ 
P. &A. Photos, 
The larger of the two chicks received a 15-minute bath of artificial ultra-violet light 
from a Oooper-Hewitt fused quartz lamp and weighs five times as much as the other, 
has perfect legs, is larger and better developed than a chicken hatched at the same 
time and allowed to run in the open sunlight. Photo shows the two being held below 
the special lamp by a laboratory worker. 
