The quartz mercury-arc has been extensively used in the past decade for the treatment of skin diseases and there appears to be less uncertainty about the efficacy of radiant energy for the treatment of surface diseases than of others.  Herod related that the Egyptians treated patients by exposure to direct sunlight and throughout the centuries and among all types of civilization sunlight has been recognized as having certain valuable healing or purifying properties.  Finsen in his early experiments cured a case of lupus, a tuberculous skin disease, by means of the visible and near ultra-violet rays in sunlight.  He demonstrated that these were the effective rays by using only the radiant energy which passed through a water-cell made by using a convex lens for each end of the cell and filling the intervening space with water.  This was really a lens made of glass and water.  The glass absorbed the ultra-violet rays of shorter wave-length and the water absorbed the infra-red rays.  Thus he was able to concentrate upon the diseased skin radiant energy consisting of visible and near ultra-violet rays.

The encouraging results which Finsen obtained in the treatment of skin diseases led him to become independent of sunlight by equipping a special arc-lamp with quartz lenses.  This gave him a powerful source of so-called chemical rays, which could be concentrated wherever desired.  However, when science contributed the mercury-vapor arc, developments were immediately begun which aimed to utilize this artificial source of steady powerful ultra-violet rays in light-therapy.  As a consequence, there are now available very compact quartz mercury-arcs designed especially for this purpose.  Apparently their use has been very effective in curing many skin diseases.  Certainly if radiant energy is effective, it has a great advantage over drugs.  An authority has stated in regard to skin diseases that,

treatment with the ultra-violet rays, especially in conjunction with the Roentgen rays, radium and mesothorium is that treatment which in most instances holds rank as the first, and in many as the only and often enough the most effective mode of handling the disease.

Sterilization by means of the radiation from the quartz mercury-arc has been practised successfully for several years.  Compact apparatus is in use for the sterilization of water for drinking, for surgical purposes, and for swimming-pools, and the claims made by the manufacturers of the apparatus apparently are substantiated.  One type of apparatus withstands a pressure of one hundred pounds per square inch and may be connected in series with the water-main.  The water supplied to the sterilizer should be clear and free of suspended matter, in order that the radiant energy may be effective.  Such apparatus is capable of sterilizing any quantity of water up to a thousand gallons an hour, and the lamp is kept burning only when the water is flowing.  It is especially useful in hotels, stores, factories, on ships, and in many industries where sterile water is needed.