Regulating the Sun-bath to sun’s Intesnsity
When the early morning hours of summer are used for the general sun-bath, additional local irradiations, for superficial lesions and wounds, may be given between eleven and twelve, providing the sunning is of short duration and interrupted frequently. In short, it seems only common sense that, whether general or local baths be given, the sunning be regu-lated, in duration and extent of surface covered, according to the intensity of the sunlight and the nearness of the hour to noon or the hottest part of the day. In autumn and spring, in temperate latitudes, the middle of the day will be the only time during which effective sun-baths can be taken without very long exposures; and during these seasons the effective¬ness of the sunlight will be even further reduced in proportion to the time distance from the middle of summer. In high altitudes at this season there may be enough of the actinic rays in the sunlight so that, by exposures for an entire morning or afternoon, very beneficial sun-baths can be secured.
The weaker the individual, the more pronounced an ab¬normal condition, the greater the susceptibility to diseases of the blood-vessels; and the fairer, the paler, or the more lifeless the skin, the greater will be the need, at first, for short sun-baths.