The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-29
THE WIZARDS CROwNING GLORY.
Discovery VIII RevOIutiOnize Sur
gical Methods and Prevent Mis-
In lSeH.

New York. March 22-Mr. Edison last
Friday succeeded in penetrating the hui
man body with the naked eye, according
to the New York Journal. He looked in
to the heart and lungs and examined the
arteries, the blood vessels and muscles of
one of his assistants. Mr.. Edison has
perhaps reached the browning glory Of
his life-he has opened the door which at
once revolutionizes and incalcuably Wild
ems the horizon of the medical world.
The great inventor has laid bare to the
eye of the physician and the surgeon ev-
cry organ and tissue and bone of the hui
man body. The simplest mind can grasp
what this means in the diagnosis the
treatment and the actual observ alton of
the progress of internal diseases. 1t Is
powerful cathode light behind his patient,
he gazes through a screen of prepared
chemicals and sees every organ of the
body as plainly as he sees the dishes on
his dinner table
Mr.. Edison is now completing a nuores-
cent screen eight feet high, which will
enable him TO see these things from the
top of ones head to the sole Of his feet.
The fiuorescene substance used by Mr..
Edlson, and declared by MIN TO be the
most powerful thing of the kind discover
ed so far, is tungstate of lime. The two
substances are fused In a furnace and at
a proper degree of heat form little crys-
French pea. These crystals are glued to
a piece of paper by means of coiodiom.
transparent celluloid paint; In the case
of the huge screen that Mr. Edison is
building for taking at a glance the en-
tire Internal organism of man the cry
stalls would be spread directly on an inch
plank.
The screen is made in the shape of a
monster mill hopper, standing on end. The
face on which the crystals are applied
are about eight feet high and four feet
broad. To this face will be fastened sides
that will slant inward to a sharp point.
AT this point there will be left slit just
large enough to see through with ease.
This slit will be protected by means of
rubber flap in such a way as TO exclude
The screen will be set up SO taat the
side on which the tungstate % calcium
has been glued faces row of four or
I'VE Crooks tubes, set one above the other,
at an equal distance. The person to be
examined will then step in between the
screen and the light, and he viii be In
stantly penetrated and become visible TO
the eyes of the examiner at the screen.
But If you penetrate the bones of the
skull Will there be anything at all left to
see2 VIII not man dissolve into thin
air. and leave no impressiOn?' was asked.
We now have perfected our screen to
can go through bone when we get the
proper light about as well as we can go
through some other substances. OF course,
under these circumstances, when we get
our current and lamps just right we
viii be able to look through man, leav~
iliS IutnlIB 10 De seen. unless. lnQee0,
there are foreign substances, like metals
which do not absorb the rays. When we
are looking for such foreign substances
we Will use the full power and leave only
vague shadow outline of the bones. Blu.
in ordinary cases, where we do not want
as much strength as thatsewe will see
just as much or just as little as we de-
sire by changing our focus.".
Mr.. Edison has run out for a few mo-
ments from the dark room in which he
was experimenting and was searching for
new chemical that was to be used in the
a test. He got what he wanted and, after
watching the y rays come up and die
down and come up again in the Crooks
tubes that were on the pumps for exhaus-
on the current, Brown to his assistant
& THAT looks perfect, doesn't ito AS far
as We can see we have there the X ray;
the same condition that exists when we
get out our best results. That's what is
confusing; for when you take this screen
and look through II everything is pitch
Unexpectedly black. Try it yourself F"
The wizard handed the reporter the
screen, which IS a maniature of the big
screen which he proposes to use for his
life-size examination. 1t looked not unlike
the hopper of a small cider MILL
/ That, explained Mr. Edison, as he
passed the screen along, lis the most IA
miliar form an which to get up the screen
for experimental work"
What would have been the open end of
the hopper in a cider mill was covered
in the manufacture of document boxes.
This paStebOard face was six inches
square. ON the inside ii was covered with
the tungstate crystals. Where the sloping
sides Of the uDDerlike screen met, a slit
ABOUT I'VE inches long and an inch wide