James Angus Doull and the well-controlled common cold.

Abstract

In 1931, James Angus Doull (1889–1963) and his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health reported a study evaluating ‘the prophylactic value of ultra-violet light in acute upper respiratory disease’. Three hundred and seventy three medical and public health students were divided ‘at random’ into three unequal-sized groups. The first group was to receive one ultraviolet treatment per week; the second group received two treatments; and the remaining group served as controls.1