Early radiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

In January 1896, a Cleveland Plain Dealer article reported Roentgen’s success in producing rays that would penetrate wood, flesh, and other organic substances [1 1. Dr. Dayton C. Miller, physics professor at Case School of Applied Sciences (later Case Western Reserve), is said to have generated X-rays by early afternoon of the day the article appeared. Arthur Wright of the Yale Physics Departrnent, using a homemade apparatus on January 27, 1896, obtained a clear representation of objects such as a pencil, a pair of scissors, and a coin with X-rays [2]. John Trowbridge, director of Harvard’s Jefferson Physical Laboratory, accomplished the same feat and reported his success in the New York Journal on February 2, 1896. Edwin Brant Frost, professor of astronomy at Dartmouth, used Xrays to display a Colles’ fracture on February 3, 1 896, thereby exposing the first clinical radiograph in America [2]. It is uncertain when the first news of Roentgen’s discovery reached Galveston. The Galveston News of February 23, 1896, presented an extensive report on the discovery and described in considerable detail most of what was known about X-rays at that time. Dr. Seth Mabry Morris (1867-1952) was the first professor of chemistry in the new Medical School in Galveston. He authored an article entitled “The X-rays” in the March 1896 issue of University Medical [3], making clear that he was familiar with the apparatus needed for the production of X-rays and that he anticipated their usefulness in medicine. In the last paragraph of his paper he stated that he had attempted to make radiographs without success, probably due to lack of a coil of sufficient strength. In 1896, Felix Miller, a first-year medical student and later a surgeon, from El Paso, TX, under the direction of Dr. Morris, began fabrication of an induction coil of sufficient capacity to excite a Crookes tube to produce useful X-rays. The tube was ordered from Philadelphia, and an invoice for a similar tube showed the price of $1 5. Miller converted a Singer sewing machine into a suitable apparatus for winding the coil with thousands of feet of fine copper wire. He worked in the basement of the old red building (now called the Ashbel Smith Building), the original medical school building, illustrated on the cover of the September 1 1 , 1991 , issue of JAMA. Near the end of the summer of 1 896 Miller completed his task, and Dr. Morris was ready to attempt again to produce satisfactory roentgenograms. That was accomplished during the first or second week of September 1896, the event corroborated by a lengthy article appearing in the Galveston News on September 12 of that year. The article described the activities of Dr. Morris in producing roentgenograms of the hands of two young ladies and of a series of metallic objects. Dr. R. D. Cline, professor of pharmacology, assisted Dr. Morris. The original apparatus consisted of a Rumkoff coil with a Teslatype interrupter on one end and a spark gap on top. The power may have been provided by a battery or some other source of direct current. It was necessary to interrupt the current at least 1 0 times per second in order to produce sufficient voltage in the coil. A spark obtained across the spark gap set at 21/2 inches would indicate that a voltage sufficient to produce useful X-rays was available. Exposures for extremities lasted from 10 to 20 minutes. The images were obtained on glass plates covered by emulsion on only one side. Development required solutions kept at a constant temperature of around 75#{176}F, something of a problem during the warm season in Galveston. The first recorded examination of a patient with this apparatus was early in 1897. The subject was a young man with a bullet lodged in his thigh from a gunshot wound sustained 4 years earlier. An extensive search for the bullet previously was unsuccessful. The roentgenogram clearly located the bullet about 5 inches above the knee, and it was easily removed by Dr. James E. Thompson, professor of surgery 141. In 1936, the opening address to the incoming freshman class of the medical school was given by Dr. Morris [5]. In it he recounted his experiences as Galveston’s first roentgenologist. Much of what we remember about these early days was recorded by Robert N. Cooley, M.D., in his History of the Department of Radiology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, published locally in 1986.