patient in a room to which only red light is admitted. This results in the prevention of suppuration, the most dangerous and the most painful stage of the disease, and effect: recovery without the appearance of scars.

This paper brought Finsen recognition and support, so that from this time on he I was able to devote his entire strength to working in his chosen field, phototherapy. He soon discovered that the chemical rays kill bacteria, and hence concluded that they should be of value in treating skin disease of bacterial origin. He made his first test in 1895 on Niel Morgensen, an engineer of Copenhagen who was suffering with lupus. This disease is caused by the

and rendering the light cool by passing it through blue water. This treatment was continued for one or two hours each day for six months, by which time the cure was complete. Within a month, Finsen was offered room in the grounds of the Commune Hospital of Copenhagen, where he continued his experiments on

the case where the tuberculosis bacteria become active in the lungs. Lupus is quite common in the northern countries and is the cause of much suffering. Morgensen had undergone many operations; but still the disease spread.

Finsen went to work concentrating the sunlight upon the sore by means of a hand lens, first removing the red rays

a larger scale and with more help. At first he depended on sunlight, and the work was carried on in one of the gardens of the hospital. He applied himself to increasing the penetrating power of the rays, for at the best they enter the body only a fraction of an inch. He found that the rays penetrated farther if the skin were rendered white and bloodless by pressure. This he proved by an interesting experiment. He exposed a piece of sensitive paper behind the ear of his wife,

concen

trating the blue light upon the ear. The paper was not blackened after five minutes. On squeezing the blood out of the ear, the paper was blackened in twenty seconds. He also began to use clear in place of blue water for removing heat rays, and adopted quartz lenses to absorb fewer chemical rays. He found the electric arc light much richer in these rays than the sun. He adopted all of these improvements, and enlarged the

lamp until the arc was of 40,000 candlepower and required current of 80 amperes. He was stopped here only by the fact that it was impossible to cool the light from a stronger arc sufficiently to keep it from burning the patient. The Finsen light, as finally used, consisted of an 80-ampere arc light carrying four telescope-like tubes which contain the quartz condensing lenses and the water for cooling. This enables four patients to be treated at one time from one lamp.

In a short time the Danish Government recognized the value of the work, and the Finsen Medical Light Institute was started in Rosenvaengel, a pretty suburb

lamps in use there, and the rooms were aglow with a red light. Under each lamp might be found a group of eight people, four patients and four nurses, laughing and chatting.

The patients, who are of all ages, lie on cots, while the nurses direct the tubes so that the rays are focused upon the diseased spots, and at the same time press the spot with a water-filled glass, which serves to drive out the blood and help cool the light. The treatment lasts for one and one-quarter hours each day. The cost for the treatment in the Institute is sixty kroners ($17.00) a month for poor patients, and 100 kroners ($28.00)

of Copenhagen. Here Professor Finsen lived and did his work. Though himself suffering from a complication of diseases, he devoted all his energy to experimenting and to attending his patients. Mr. Jacob Riis, who was an intimate friend of Finsen, says:

"I came to look with a kind of reverential awe upon this patient, silent man whose every thought was for his suffering fellows, while he calmly counted the hours to his own release from racking pain."

The Institute was unlike most hospitals. The buildings were situated among fine flower gardens and trees. They consisted of the Laboratory, Prof. Finsen's house, and a long, white, two-story building, the gift of the Danish Government for Danish patients. There were seven

for those who are in better circumstances. Finsen was a poor man, and gave the results of his experiments freely to the world. He lived on the $1,200 salary which was paid by the Government. One cause of much regret to him was the $4,000 debt still due on the Institute, which he was unable to lift. Mr. Riis says:

"I learned from his own lips the story of his great temptation-how, when he had finally made his discovery, he lay awake one whole night debating with himself whether to turn it to account in private practice (Finsen is a poor man) or to give it and his life to the world. He chose poverty, and the world is richer for his sacrifice."

The Institute is visited by many foreigners. In 1898 the Empress of Russia visited it, and then sent a party of Rus

sians over to Copenhagen to investigate the method and make a report. As a result, a Finsen lamp was installed in St. Petersburg. Queen Alexandra of England, who visited the Institute at the same time, on her return to London presented a Finsen lamp to the London Hospital. Thus the treatment spread to other countries. America was rather slow in adopting the treatment, partly because of the scarcity of lupus in this country; but now there are many lamps in use here also. Many modifications, both in the method and in the light, have been proposed, in the attempt to render the treatment more effective, cheaper, and easier to apply; but the Finsen light is still regarded as the most effective.

Professor Finsen used these rays for the cure of many other diseases such as the small surface form of cancer, baldness due to bacteria, acne, erysipelas, and many minor eruptions. Together with the X-rays, the Finsen light has been used with quite good success in treating deeper-seated cancers.

The world pays tribute to Professor Finsen, both for removing many of the terrors of smallpox and also for an apparent cure for lupus. Up to 1895, when Finsen first applied his method, there was no known method of curing or even checking the ravages of lupus. Since

then, the Institute at Copenhagen alone has treated thousands of cases. Out of the first six hundred cases, there was practically no failure due to a fault in the treatment, though a few cases were so far advanced and had run so long that a cure was impossible. Cases of forty years' standing were cured in a few months or years, while cases taken early were cured in a few treatments. The sores heal up, and in the lighter cases hardly leave a scar. There has not yet been sufficient time to say positively that the cure is absolute, although it appears to be. Many of the modified lamps are not strong enough to cure entirely in the worst cases, and so are causing reports of failure; but the Finsen light appears to do all that its originator claimed for it. The Finsen light and the X-ray are held in about equal regard at present, the X-ray being more penetrating, but not so healing, nor so harmless, as the Finsen light.

It is a pleasure to know that only last December the Norwegian Parliament awarded to Professor Finsen the Nobel Medical Prize, thus recognizing the importance of his discovery during his lifetime. His death at the early age of 43 is a great loss to his profession, and his life may well serve as an example and inspiration for others.

E

XTENSION of the recently completed Alaskan telegraph cable into the Porcupine District west of Lynn Canal, has brought to light a strange new land of Uncle Sam's possession. In that far northern latitude, a climate has been found nearly as mild as Chicago's. In the spring and summer the ground is covered with heavy foliage, including flowers. of rich hue, vines, and grasses. Explorers and early settlers have grown gardens of many kinds of kinds of vegetables, all of which were remarkable for their rare flavor. Fruit trees planted there have made good progress; and it is believed the land may be made to produce apples, peaches, berries, and other fruits indigenous to the United

ALASKAN INDIAN

GRAVE.

States. The mildness of the climate is attributable to its proximity to the ocean and to the warm Japan return current which sweeps the Alaskan coast.

The part of this country country most noted for its peculiarities, comes into America's undisputed possession through the recent boundary decision. All of Glacier Creek becomes part of Alaska, as

does the rich tributary territory. Adventurous Americans have already gone on many exploring expeditions into the new country, and each party has something new to relate regarding the land's peculiarities. There has been considerable gold prospecting here; but as yet no remarkable finds have been made, and the

carved from a solid log of wood of enormous length, and contain the bodies of animals or birds emblematic of the particular tribe. The animals carved on the poles are held as objects of veneration by the Indians. It was of the totem pole builders among the North American Indians, that Longfellow wrote:

"And they painted on the grave-posts
"Of the graves yet unforgotten,
"Each his own ancestral totem,
"Each the symbol of his household;
"Figures of the bear and reindeer,
"Of the turtle, crane, and beaver."

Study of these newly found totem poles leads to the conclusion that the explanation of the crests and emblems of the now disrupted tribes and clans of our own

ALASKAN INDIAN CAMP.

country seems destined to notoriety through other claims to attractiveness.

The region is inhabited by a strange people of whom the Canadians knew little and the Americans knew less until the land passed finally under Uncle Sam's control. These inhabitants, while now in a low stage of intelligence, show evidences of a former relatively high civilization. They are among the few extant tribes of builders of totem poles, and the skill they display in this work is phenomenal. The poles are generally

TOTEM POLE AT FORT WRANGEL.