Do not be afraid to let the sunlight penetrate your dwellings, especially the morning sun. Thrifty housewives are prone to regard the actions of the sun’s rays on their carpets and draperies as disastrous in the extreme, but its exclusion from their dwelling is far more disastrous to the health of the inmates. There is, of course, a happy medium in all things, and, therefore, it is not necessary to have the sun’s rays streaming in through every door and window during the whole day; but the entire dwelling should be (as far as possible) thrown open to the vivifying beams of old Sol for a couple of hours in the morning, which at the same time will thoroughly ventilate the building. There is more virtue in sunlight than most people are aware of. Its bactericidal effects are only just beginning to be understood; but if you desire a healthful dwelling, let God’s bright sunshine freely and frequently penetrate every corner of it.
It is astonishing how few people there are who properly estimate the hygienic value of the sun’s rays. A valuable lesson on this point may be learned by observing the lower animals, none of which ever neglect an opportunity to bask in the sun. And the nearer man approaches to his primitive condition the more he is inclined to follow the example of the animals. It is a natural instinct which civilization has partially destroyed in the human race.
The effect of sunshine is not merely thermal, to warm and raise the heat of the body; its rays have chemical and electric functions. As a clever physician lately explained, it is more than possible that sunshine produces vibrations and changes of particles in the deeper tissues of the body, as effective as those of electricity. Many know by experience that the relief it affords to wearing pain, neuralgic and inflammatory, is more effective and lasting than that of any application whatever.
Those who have faceache should prove it for themselves, sitting in a sunny window where the warmth falls full on the cheek.
For nervous debility and insomnia the treatment of all others is rest in sunshine. Draw the bed to the window and let the patient lie in the sun for hours. There is no tonic like it--provided the good effects are not neutralized by ill-feeling. To restore a withered arm, a palsied or rheumatic limb, or to bring a case of nervous prostration up speedily, a most efficient part of the treatment would be to expose the limb or the person as many hours to direct sunlight as the day would afford. With weak lungs let the sun fall on the chest for hours. If internal tumor or ulceration is suspected, let the sun burn through the bear skin directly on the point of disease for hours daily. There will be no doubt left in the mind that there is a curative power in the chemical rays of the sun.