Peculiarities of X Rays

1901

There are many curious things about X rays which seem to puzzle even the scientists. Signor Briguiti, who has been making experiments with them at Rome, says that the visibility of a substance to the eye is no criterion of its visibility to the X rays. The rays cannot see through glass, which is transparent to the eye, whereas aluminum, which is opaque to the eye, is transparent to the X rays. The rays can see a splinter of glass in the hand, but not a splinter of wood. Most inks are transparent to the rays, including printer's ink, but some of them are opaque. The rays can see through a postoffice directory, but if a paper with words written on it be put in the middle of the directory the rays will reveal these words and nothing behind them.

Comment: In 1901, postoffice was one word like that. Weird looking, I know.

Introducing the X-Ray

March 1896

From Vienna comes the news of a wonderful discovery in photographic science. It is no less than a means of photographing the interior of solid, opaque bodies.

By the new system the bones of a man's hand were perfectly photographed, the flesh being invisible in the picture. Broken limbs and bullets in human bodies were also successfully revealed, as well as objects placed in a wooden box.

Professor Rontgen, of the University of Wurzburg, is the inventor. The light he uses to photograph by is produced by what is known as a Crooke's pipe, viz: a vacuum glass tube with an induction electric current passing through it. The result is a light that appears to penetrate organic substances just as ordinary light passes through glass. The inventor throws open a wide field for the deduction of new truths in electricity and optics.

Hungry Lad Is Shot While Seeking Food

Feb. 1920

Restaurant Owner's Bullets Halts Attempted Burglary

TOPEKA, Kansas — Hungry, cold and unable to sleep, John Ross, 10-year-old lad, who recently escaped from the Topeka Boys' Industrial school, got a bullet wound when at 2 o'clock a.m. he attempted to steal something to eat from a local restaurant.

The proprietor, hearing the noise, shot, and the boy made his escape. Making his way to the Rock Island roundhouse, before telling that he was shot, he asked the men to help him get something to eat.

Young Ross, who says his real name is John Guinness, beat his way to Topeka some time ago from Philadelphia. He says his home is in West Virginia, and that he ran away because he could not get along with his stepfather.

Physicians called to the lad's aid were unable to determine the seriousness of his wound.


Boy Swallows 50-Cent Coin

Nature Removes It After Hospital Surgeons Had Their Try

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Old Mother Nature proved herself to be the best physician after all in the removing of the 50-cent piece swallowed by Francis Quinn, 14 years old.

The coin at first lodged itself behind the larnyx. An X-ray photograph was taken to determine how best to operate for its removal, but upon the development of the plate no trace of the coin was seen and physicians decided it had slipped down into the digestive tract.

The boy left the hospital with the silver half dollar tucked away in his deepest pocket.

False Teeth Missed After "Tonic" Spree

Feb. 1920

"Must Have Swallowed 'Em," Loser Tells Jailer

EAST POINT, Georgia — Tom Williams, a pencil peddler, who imbibed too freely of hair tonic and landed in the police barracks, reports to the turnkey that he is short a set of false teeth and that during his uncertain wanderings he must have swallowed them.

A diligent search of the station house and surrounding territory failed to reveal the missing molars, and it was finally decided to take Tom over to the Grady Hospital, where an X-ray picture might be taken, to find out whether the liquor he drank was strong enough to pull the teeth on down with it.

Tom was somewhat skeptical about the X-ray, but anxiety as to the whereabouts of the teeth finally led him to consent to the experiment, which will be made when his nerves have become more settled.


Dime Chick Gets Prize

CROOKSTON, Minnesota — Several weeks ago Arthur Kirsch of Crookston bought a tiny chicken at a local five and ten cent store for a dime. Recently he entered the chicken at the Pennington County poultry show. It was adjudged to be a full-blooded white Leghorn and carried off a blue ribbon with a score of 92 points.

Yale Physiologist Talks on Medicine

New York, 1936

Scientists can no longer expect to make progress only behind the closed doors of the laboratory, stated Dr. Howard W. Haggard, of the Yale Medical Faculty, in a talk at McMillin Theatre last Tuesday evening. Speaking on "Medicine in the Headlines," Dr. Haggard talked briefly of the changing problems of science, and of contemporary newspaper comments on medical discoveries in the last few centuries.

"The prolongation of life by stamping out infectious diseases has brought about a new problem entirely," the Yale physiologist said. Medical attention today is centered chiefly on diseases of old-age, the so-called degenerate diseases, since the average life span at present is over 60 years, as against the 20 years of two centuries ago, he said.

Dr. Haggard pictured health conditions prevalent in the time of Louis XIV — epidemics of typhoid, small-pox, and diphtheria, of dysentery and tuberculosis. "Only one infectious disease was that time under control — leprosy — and that by the Biblical method of segregation," he stated. One-half of all deaths were those of children under two years of age; the mortality rate in some foundling homes and shelters being as high as 99%. Dr. Haggard commented that a possible relationship between cleanliness and health was never considered. "The discovery of the bacterial causes of disease is probably one of the few medical findings which can be compared with the discovery of fire and the invention of wheels as a primary factor in man's lasting supremacy," he continued.

Until recent years, newspapers were exceedingly haphazard and nonchalant about their reporting of scientific events, he stated. "The discovery of anaesthesia, which was not only a great but spectacular step forward, received no favorable newspaper comment until 1846," Dr. Haggard said. Previous to that time, only three items on the subject appeared in the papers: an advertisement and two protests. The former concerned itself with a demonstration of "the actions of persons under the influence of nitrous oxide; volunteers from the audience will be requested," and twelve brawny men provided to keep the situation under control. The demonstration, moreover, was guaranteed to be entertaining.

There were many advertisements for patent medicines — in 1850, for example, sarsaparilla, "the now lowly flavoring for pop," was proclaimed a panacea for all ills. Macassar oil was widely advertised and used as a hair tonic, and it was to combat the ravages of this upon upholstery that antimacassars were invented. Following the press announcements in 1895 of Roentgen's X-ray findings, bills were introduced into the legislature to forbid the manufacture of X-ray glasses for the theatre, and X-ray proof garments for women were immediately advertised.

Science as quoted in the press is frequently misinterpreted, Dr. Haggard stated, but the importance of medical items in the papers to educate the layman and to create an aroused public opinion cannot be overestimated.

Dr. Haggard is Associate Professor of Applied Physiology at Yale University, and is an eminent author and popular lecturer. His book, "Devils, Drugs and Doctors," was a national best-seller, and his talks over the radio and from the lecture platform have received wide acclaim.

—Bayard Bulletin, New York, NY, Jan. 1, 1936, page 3.

Latest Progress: Phonograph Croons Baby Lullabies, Cradle Rocks

1903

Brass Lullabies for Babies.

Further cause for indignation among the cult, that is for getting back to nature and old-fashioned ideals as fast as possible will be supplied by the newly invented machine of a Swiss mechanic.

It is an automatic nurse for babies, and is attached to the cradle. If the baby cries, the air waves cause specially arranged wires to operate a phonograph, which croons a lullaby, while clockwork released simultaneously causes the cradle to rock.

How the heart will be stirred at the sight of the motherly brass phonograph bending over the grieving pink and white mite in the cradle, "crooning" a lullaby. Did you ever hear a phonograph croon? It croons in a sad, low tone like an X-ray machine and a torn cat singing a duet. It ought to cultivate a taste for music in the infant mind that might materially affect the voice quality.—St, Louis Globe-Democrat.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 5, 1903, page 6.

Woman Swallows Mouse; To Hospital

1920

Penalty of Sleeping With Mouth Open, She Says

LONDON, England -- St. Thomas Hospital, London, has just treated a patient who told the doctors that she had swallowed a mouse. She is Mary Watson of Lambeth, a young married woman.

"I have swallowed a mouse and am very sick," she said to the doctor who attended her. She explained that she was asleep at 3 a.m. with her baby when she was awakened by the child moving.

"I saw a mouse coming along my breast. The mouse slipped into my mouth before I could stop it. I always sleep with my mouth open."

It was thought unnecessary at the hospital to put the woman under X-rays, as she was suffering from ordinary sickness only, and she left easier in mind.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 9.

Comment: So did she swallow a mouse or not?

Six Stiches in His Heart

1920

Trial Jury Is Shown Photograph Made by the Surgeon

PITTSBURGH, Pa. -- The story of a remarkable surgical operation was told in the Criminal Court by Dr. J. F. Berg of St. John's Hospital in the trial of John Hoza, accused of attempting to kill Steve Belonik in a fight last April 9.

Dr. Berg exhibited X-ray plates which provided a startling record of Belonik's case. He testified that Belonik had received a stab wound in the back, which had cut the left ventricle of the heart.

"I opened the chest, removing several ribs, and sewed the heart up, putting six stitches in it," said the surgeon. "The man was out of danger on April 21."

The photographs showed the heart and the sutured incision.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 9.