The Sun Cure and the Work Cure in Surgical Tuberculosis

HELIOTHER.M11Y h.as COIIe to be associated especially withl higlh altitudes ill the Swiss Alps.More thanl a quarter of a ceintury ago thie filst clinic for the treatiulenit of surgical tuberculosis by geileral and systematized lleliotherapy was opeiied by me at Leysill, aild the results have proved so fas ouri able that lheliotherapy lias becomiie recogiiized as tho treatmelnt par excellenice for surgical tuberculosis.Leysin is situated in Switzerland, overlooking the upper Rh6noe valley and facing tile p)icturesque ridge of the Dent du Midi alnd lleighbouiring snow-capped peaks.Altlhough its height is betweeni 4,000 alnd 5,000 feet, the site is protected fronm the niorth willds by pine-clad up- lands aiid it slopes steeply towards the southern sun.TIle air is tller efore still, and the daily amount of sllllshine is exceptio'nally great, both in willter and in suminmer, so tlhat heliotherapy caln he practised liere all the year rounid.The idea of a worlk cure for bed-riddeln patients is of iolie recent intioduction, alid miglht at first sighit appear to be a conitradictioni inl ternis.Occupational therapy has for lolig beell applied to collsuimiptive patients-for example, by George Bodingtoll (1840)-and ill lmore recen-t times by, Dr. Marcus Paterson, who, at Frimley, presciribed gradu- ated work in the form of gardening, Dr. Varrier-Jones at Papworth, as w-ell as by Sir Robert Phlilip, Sir Robert Jones, amid manly other auitllorities botli ill England and in Anilerica.