Heliotheraphy

1923

Truby King Collection WB 480 HF47 1923

London: Henry Frowde and Hodder & Stoughton

Truby King was dogged by illness all his life. While travelling to Nelson as a child he suffered from infantile diarrhoea and terrible seasickness. He was treated by regular purging with doses of calomel and arsenic. His condition was so bad that his father halted the purging and recalled later to him: ‘I …will let you die in peace!’ When aged six Truby contracted broncho-pneumonia, pleurisy, and tuberculosis – leaving him with a marked drooping of the right shoulder. While in Europe in 1919, King visited Professor Rollier, an expert on using solar therapy for sufferers of tuberculosis. Rollier’s Heliotherapy is featured here.