The herald., 1896-10-18
THE HERALD'S X-RAY CLINIC
Los Angeles County Medical As.
sociati0n Interested
THE INVASION OF PATIENTS
The Herald's Editorial Rooms Crowded
to the Doors
Many Interesting Cases Examined by
the Wonderful Light-An Interest
ing Discourse on the Discovery. -

The tube acted like an old maid Thurs
day, girl with her first beau the day
before, Friday she acted like a
, sulky, balky mule, and utterly refused
to do we'll until about half past in the
afternoon, when it frightened up sud-
denly for a five-minute flash, just to
show what she could do if she wanted
and that she had been sulking on pur-
pose with malicious prepense and afore-
thought. Yesterday she utterly outdid
herself in brilliancy. r.-s..
The Los Angeles County Medical as
sociation had asked an exhibition of the
apparatus, and lecture upon it for
their members. In moving it to their
meeting hall weak rope allowed it to
slip and fall from the wagon to the
sidewalk. 1t was overturned in the fall
and the current breaker was Jared out
of its fastenings. The little wheel which
revolves with such rapidity that one of
It's thirty SpokeS pass the spectator eye
one hundred thousand times in a min
ute, was bent up into almost hopeless
mess.
Electrician A. w. Harrison, however,
succeeded at last in getting it to produce
three-inch spark at the spark gap.
AS this was just enough to be too little
to work the tubes, it seemed that the ap-
paratus was about to end its three-day
fit of crankiness by disappointing the
doctors anxious to see it. At the last
| moment, however, it came to time with
| spark of fully six inches, all that is
necessary for a considerable display of
its powers. A spark of nine or ten inch
es has sometimes been maintained.
The doctors deferred their usual eXer-
cises after twenty minutes of associa-
tion business, and short paper read by
one of the members upon an interesting
case of the poisoning Of a little child by
an overdose Of vermifuge in prepared
lozenges bought ready made.
They then listened to a concise ac-
count Of the history of Professor Roent-
gems wonderful discovery and it's me-
chanical construction, its accomplish
ments up to the present time and the
possibilities of it's future.
It's practical application in surgery,
diagnostication and medication was
especially dwelt upon. In giving the
history of it's discovery the article in the
Herald of October 7th was quoted and
concise and impartial statement of facts
therein. The doctor said:
LAS in nearly all great discoveries
there is to this one series of
successive happenings leading up to
the final result. Back of Roent-
gen we find William Crookes, whose
tube made the practical application
of Roentgen's discovery possible;
Hertz, with new and wondful
theory of light, and the original
statement that thin leaves of metal
are penetrable by the invisible rays
emanating from a Crookes tube; then
came Prof. Lenard with an announce
ment of his discovery that phos-
phorescent bodies placed in the line of
such rays would become Illuminated.
From this to Professor Roentgen's full
result was such a short step that one
wonders that Professor Lenard could
have stopped there without even the
accident of passing his hand between
the Crookes tube and the phosphores-
cent body illuminated by it, for this
would have depicted upon the illumi-
mated phosphorescent body, in varying
density Of shadow, it's bony structure
and its flesh, and a sensitized plate
fully accomplished the great discov-
cry"
The description of the mechanical
construction has already been, given
The Herald's readers. - .r-tu
A very interesting instance of X-ray
medication was mentioned. Last Feb
ruary while the discovery was yet new
1t was suggested that as light was de-
structive to bacilli and disease germs
the X-ray might destroy tuberculi. A
test was made, but in the then imperfect
condition of the invention the results
seemed contradictory to the expecta-
tions In fact the disease germs in the
animals inoculated with tuberculin
matter seemed to be invigorated by the
X-ray. The Academy Of France has