EFFECT OF ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT ON THE BLOOD OF NEW-BORN INFANTS

Abstract

With the increasing use of ultraviolet light as an important therapeutic measure for children, it is obviously necessary to ascertain the effect of this procedure on the young organism. In the first paper of this series, it was shown that the ultraviolet light was capable of increasing the blood platelets in the new-born.¹ This paper deals with the effect on the erythrocytes and hemoglobin. MATERIAL This study is based on the observations on a series of 200 new-born infants, during a period of eight months. The erythrocyte count and hemoglobin determinations were made within six hours after birth, and at twenty-four hour intervals thereafter. The determinations were made at the same time every day. Treatments with the ultraviolet ray were begun on alternate infants on the second day, and continued thereafter at the same time on each of the following four days. METHOD The estimation of the hemoglobin content