[HELIOTHERAPY]. Rollier, A[ugustine].

The Sun Cure in Dr. A. Rollier’s Clinics, Leysin (Switzerland) [wrapper title].

(Genève: Gravure et Impression SADAG), [ca. 1926]. First edition. Oblong pamphlet in pictorial wrappers, 5.25 x 8 inches, 23, [1] pages, wire stitched. Inside rear wrapper with a printed key to a map of the clinics, paginated as page 25. Illus. Paper stock and wrappers a little toned and foxed; small chip from the lower corner of the front wrapper; a very good copy. Item #20064

“In fact, general isolation, that is to say, the direct action of sun rays on the whole of the patient’s naked body, combined with the beneficient effects of the pure and bracing mountain air, constitutes the best of tonics and health restorers. Moreover, heliotherapy consitutes also the bet of local treatments inasmuch as it is now acknowledged that the sun’s radiations not only relieve pain, but are most active bactericidal and healing agents.” Allusive naturism, this a detailed promotional booklet on the Swiss “sun cure” clinics established in 1903 in Leysin by Dr. Augustine Rollier for the treatment of tuberculosis; allusion is made in the text to 23 years since the founding of the Leysin colony, suggesting the publication date of 1926. Rollier had by this point expanded his population to include children and adults, as well as specific treatment for the war wounded: “We have observed, among the soliders interned at Leysin, that, after a few weeks of heliotherapeutics, penetrating wounds that had been suppurating for eighteen months and more, dried up.” The illustrations are suggestive of contemporary nudist literature, showing robustly healthy people in loincloths hiking in the snow, sewing on the sun porch, playing boules, etc. OCLC would suggest a similar copy with a variant imprint held in a single copy at McGill, and another at the Countway Library at Harvard; a slightly later edition is held by the Royal College of Surgeons.

Price: $250.00