San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-08-21
GREAT ADVANCE IN SURGERY.
The X Rays Working a Revolution in
Medicine.
Dhila dalnhia Record


Medicine.
Philadelphia Record.
The development of the new Roent-
gen photography in medicine and
surgery continues at an almost in
credible rate. Many of the latest re-
ports from Europe read like cable
canards; but the corroborative details
and confirmatory mass of particulars
are enough to convince the most skep-
teal. The greatest interest centers
now in the hospital or laboratory de-
voted exclusively to cases in which
the X rays are used, which has been
established in Berlin by Prof. Buka,
of the Berlin Polytechnicum. Prof.
Buka himself is a scientific expert
who is peculiarly fitted to undertake
this enterprise, since it was he who
discovered that all objects penetrable
by the Y rays become transparent
to the human eye by the aid of a
Crooke's tube and a screen smeared
with barium-cyanide.
An important new phase of Roent-
gen photography Is also reported from
Munich. At the International Psy-
chologic Congress now being held
there an apparatus of special design
was used which enabled the specta-
tors to observe clearly the action of
the diaphragm and heart of a SUBJ
ject. Just as photography has sue
ceeded in reproducing life motion by
| means of the kaleidoscope, vitascope
and cinemetograph, so the hitherto
invisible action of the internal or
gans may hereafter be observed. Not
only that, but by the present process
these Roentgen ray photographs
might be taken fast enough to insure
their reproduction ON screen. The
children of the next generatise may
thus study anatomy in the most re-
| alistic fashion. AS Prof. Buka him
self has been quoted as declaring:
''Skiagraphy is still in it's tallow can
die stage" What will it be when it
reaches it's electric light era?
AS for the purely medical aspect of
| its development, it is now stated, ac-
cording to the report of Messieurs
Lortet and Genoud to the French
Academy of Sciences, that tubercu-
losis is affected by the X rays. They
inoculated eight guinea pigs with tu-
berculosis virus, and exposed three
of them to the rays for an hour daily
during eight weeks. The five which
were kept from the rays developed
assesses, and their health was de-
ranged. The three kept in good
health and grew fat on theHays. The
effect of ordinary sunlight on 'bacilli
has been tried in the past, but with
far from such a decisive result. The
Roentgen rays burn the human skin
itself like the sunlight, and even de-
stroy the hair.
Another curious extension of the use
Of these rays is the discovery by Prof.
Grumbach and Du Bots Raymond, of
Berlin, that they will not only photo
graph the invisible bones of the body,
but also some of the softer parts as
well. By means of improved tubes
these two scientists have succeeded
in revealing the larynx and the dia-
phragm. The doctor of tomorrow
will evidently have no need for a
diagnosis. All that will be necessary
for him to do will be to pull out his
little Roentgen snapshot camera and
present to the patient indisputable
ocular evidence of his precise ailment
Cases of wrong diagnosis will be rare,
indeed. Even the exact causes of dys-
pepsia will be revealed at a glance;
and nobody will need to be apprehen-
sive about appendicitis or in dread
doubt as to the need of the surgeons
horrifying knife.
A SOITND LIVER MAKES A WELL