The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

May, 1927 The Health Bulletin 13
The Health Value of Sunlight
"Let there be light" is the oldest
prescription ever recorded in the history
of the world. Without sunlight
there could be no intelligent life on the
face of the earth. Sunlight was man's
first remedy, and perhaps for long eons
of time his only panacea for the ills
that beset him. The medicine men of
ancient Egypt and Greece built temples
to the sun, and unwittingly utilized the
then unknown healing properties of the
sun's rays. One of the most ancient of
religious sects were the Sun Worshippers.
To them the sun represented
life and power and warmth and com-
BATHIXG IN GUILFORD COUNTY
SUNLIGHT
fort, so why not accord him the attributes
of a god In a changing world,
full of natural enemies, the sun represented
about the only permanent and
dependable friend they had. So what
more natural than to worship him He
was giving them life, and what was
more, seemed to promise them the fulfillment
of their hope of immortality.
They came naked into a naked world,
these people who were our first ancestors.
The sunlight provided them with
a coat of tan and a hairy covering for
SUNLIGHT
their bodies, so that they could withstand
the rigors of winter cold and
changing seasons. We know now that
it provided them, as it does us, with
a peculiar quality of healing power
which prevented them from falling victims
to many ills and healed them of
others.
Modern scientific study has revealed
the fact previously unknown that there
are certain invisible rays of sunlight,
which they call "Ultra-violet light." It
has been definitely proved that these
rays, when scientifically applied, "have
power to cure such diseases as rickets,
bone tuberculosis, various skin affections,
and other troubles.
There are many kinds of baths. The
dust baths of birds and the feathered
tribe generally. Pigs delight in mud
baths. Wilk ducks chose the clean
open water of the marshes, but the
tame or barnyard ducks, the civilized
ones, prefer the mud puddles. Of all
animals, probably cats alone know best
how to take scientific sun-baths. All
of the lower animals do much sunshine
bathing, but it is probable most
of them do it because of the warmth
and comfort it affords. Not so the cat.
He much prefers a bath in the sunshine,
although he has to sit on the
window sill to get it, to the comforts
of a bed on the rug before an open
fire. So, who knows but what that
characteristic is the cause of the cat
being credited with nine lives For the
benefit of the human animal, modern
bath facilities are about as elaborate as
the Romans are said to have enjoyed a
couple of thousand years ago. There
are available the tub bath, shower
bath, sitz bath, Turkish bath, electric
bath, mud bath, and the old-fashioned
Saturday night any-kind-of-bath. But,
seriously speaking, the sun bath is in a
class by itself. It promotes the general
health and in many M-ays is far more
beneficial than any other kind of bath.
Its value has been demonstrated from
times remote. Witness the people who
have lived and died a natural death at
advanced age who seldom took any
other kind of bath ; and who almost
always enjoyed good health. Their
secret has always been that they lived
mostly in the open, and wore tanned
skins the j'ear round.
There is another relationship between
sunlight and health that has recently
been discovered. It is the effect of
sunlight on the production of certain
of the vitamins in foods. Thus, cab-