It's a Big Big World

One of our daughter's favorite television shows is It's a Big Big World.  Well, it is a big big world, and it is precisely because this is so that the study of migration is enjoyable and enlightening.  But as in-depth study can reveal the vastness of our world, so too can random bits of information, even when they have nothing to do with migration.  Take, for example, a curiousity we mention in passing in our book (on p. 18), the brief 19th century medical fad for "blue light cures."  Essentially, blue light, delivered by means of sunlight streaming through blue windows, was thought to cure a variety of diseases.  The foremost proponent of the cure was a Civil War General named A.J. Pleasonton; the full text of his 1877 book, The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Sky is available on Google.  The American medical establishment never bought into Pleasonton's ideas, which were soon discredited.  (Among other things, Paul Collins' tells the story of Pleasonton and his blue light cure in Banvard's Folly).  Lo and hehold, however, today we see this story, explaining the benefits of blue light, albeit only for the victims of one extremely rare genetic disease.  Yes, it is a big big world, and posthumous kudos to General Pleasonton.  He wasn't wrong, just way ahead of his time (and maybe a little off regarding the benefits to the general population -- but that's being picky, isn't it?).