Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-31
ROENTGEN's GREAT DISCOVERY.
Scientists Excited Over Photographic
ing Through Solid Bodies.

Julian Ralph writes in a special cable
dispatch from London to the Philadelphia
Press regarding the recent developments
of photography through solid bodies, about
which scientific Europe has gone wild:
aIuch is still printed here about the new
Roentgen Photographic operation and eX-
periments with it by scientists. All the ex-
Deriments and developments show that the
discoverer has not begun to master his dis
r5very, which still does as it wants to, re-
fusing to be trained perfectly.
The pictures thus far, though wonderful
n the extreme, are only shadow prints or
sun pictures all leaving out the substances
penetrated by the new rays and showing
black shadows of impervious objects.
We read today in correspondence from
the continent that Belgium has already
adopted the new process and ordered every
hospital supplied with paraphernalia for
aiding the surgeons with the mysterious
pictures.
Bullets and other foreign substances in
the flesh and bones of patients have al
ready been located successfully in innumer-
able instances In half the countries in what
used to consider slow old Europe Per-
haps the most interesting success thus far
Is that recorded in the news from Vienna,
where calcareous deposits in various parts
of the human system have been marvel
ously exposed.
Mans Hand Photographed.
Practically the same thing Is shown in
the photograph of a mans hand obtained
by Campbell Swinton for one of the news
papers here. The hand was that of a
healthy man, but shows slight protuber-
anees at the middle joints of two fingers,
vhereupon medical men deduce the theory
that its owner is certain to be victim of
govt before many years.
Swinton is now deluged with letters from
medical men who wish to make use of the
new discovery. One hopes to find fish
hop,a in tiant fhr0o p thor
iQ trace a coin 9 man hes swallowed. and
still another wants the photographer
proof that a patients broken wrist has
been badly set All this leads the Chronicle
to assert that We shall soon be living in a
palace of truth.
What the new invention cannot do is al
most as wonderful what it will do. The
light, or electric current, or rays, or what
ever it is, passes through many Opaque
substances, yet refuses to pass through
materials considered transparent. Wood,
carbon, aluminium, ebonite paper, PAPER
mache, human flesh and leather are trans
parent to this new current, and copper is
partially so; but nearly all metals and bone
are opaque
An Astonishing Theory.
Alfred Binet, the French scientist
eummed some metal figures on a thick
sheet of cardboard, then photographed it,
and got well-defned picture of the metal
figures. He advances the astonishing
theory that what is possible to the new
light may be also possible to human eyes.
He thinks the eyes may acquire new con-
dition under not impossible circumstances.
when, of course, such feats as reading
dates of coins and numbers on bank notes
crlImpled up in the human hand may be
performed without any trick at all.
Today's papers announce that NJ. OAR
sonval, the French electrician, has made
an astounding communicate to the Acad-
of of " 10 Z a mi
He says that he has been informed by e.
Lebon that it was unnecessary to depend
on the unknown light of Crookes' tube.
Photographic through Opaque bodies can
be done with ordinary light. A paraffine
lamp will do 1t. NJ. Lebon asserts that he
has taken photographs in this manner for
several years.
PhOtOgraphing Internal Organs.
Prof. Neuser of Vienna is preparing to
photograph the internal organs of a living
man. He hopes 1t will not be long before
his patients are saved a great deal of phys
zeal pain.
The London experiments thus far are
much simpler than the foreign, the papers
giving scientific explanations of the methods
of Roentgen~ not yet translated. 1t is
stated here that a Crookes tube is not
necessary.
power is electricity. Others believe that
Roentgen has discovered a new form of
energy, which probably works with longi-
tu.iinai-and not-trauSverSe yibra tons.
Whether this energy merely excites fiuor-
escence, which causes the formation of an
invisible image capable of development, or
whether the new energy actually affects
the photograph film, is an open question.
Persons who have been photographed de-
clare that they feel for a minute a pricking
sensation like a mild electric shock.
Remarkable Photograph.
A remarkable photograph shown at the
Royal Photographic Society was a picture
of Crookes tube, itself displaying the
concentration Of its luminosity and other
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