The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1896-03-26
VOL. 81
OAN LOOK INTO THE HUMAN
HEART.
Wizard Edison has Reached the Grown.
ing Glory of His Life.
Physicians May Now See the Internal
Organs OF the Body as clearly as a
Dentist Sees a Tooth.

and lungs, and examined the arteries,
the blood vessels and the muscles of
one of his servants. He has, perhaps,
reached the crowning glory of his life
and has opened the door which at
once revolutionizes and incalculably
widens the horizon of the medical
world.
The great inventor has fulfilled the
promise made to the world one week
ago-he has laid bare to the eve of
the physician and the surgeon every
organ and tissue and bone of the hu-
man body. The simplest mind can
grasp what this means in the dlagno-
sis, the treatment and the actual OBJ
servation of the progress of internal
diseases.
1t is very simple to Mr.. Edison.
With the powerful cathode light be-
hind his patient, he gazes through
screen of prepared chemicals and sees
every organ of the body as plainly as
he sees the dishes on his dinner table
If his subject stands very close to the
light nothing whatever is seen-the
light goes through bones and every
thing, just as sunlight goes through
glass If the patient steps foot or
two away from the light the human
skeleton stands revealed. A step
further from the light, and the muscles.
tissues and organs of the body appear
as plainly as if there was no outside
covering Of flesh.
And so on-as the distance from
the light and the focus is changed
MIR. Edison is now completing a
fluorescent screen eight feet high.
which will enable HIM to see all this
from the top of your head to the soles
of your feet.
Through the New York Journal
last Sunday Mr.. Edison told how he
could, with proper arrangement, see
through solid block of wood eight
inches thick. 1t was a mere finnish
shadow at that time that could he
seen. Now an eight inch block of
wood offers no more impediment than
a lace veil. Last week Mr.. Edison
was experimenting to find huores-
cent stream.
"When find that in its most per-
feet form | shall see anything | want
to see as soon as the light tubes are
perfec ted"
The screen has been found and
Mr.. Edison has made good his pro-
mise.
"Here," he said, pointing to a
great box-like structure the size of a
door, "that is my screen. l will have
a man step in front of that, put four
or five Crookes tubes behind him,
and you or or a surgeon will look
through him as clear as though he
were made of gauze."
"Head and all ?"
"Yes, sir, head and all. We can
look through his eyes into his skull
and see everything that is to be seen
there. A physician may diagnose his
case in an instant. He will simply
put his man before the screen, and
then penetrate him through from
head to foot"
The huorescent substance used bv
Mr.. Edison, and declared by him to
be the most perfect thing of the kind
discovered SO far, is tungstate of
calcium; in other words, tungstate
and lime. The two substances are
fused in a furnace, and at proper
degree of heat from little crystals,
perhaps one-eighth the size of a
French pea. These crystals are glued
to piece of paper by means of
collodlum, a transparent celluloid
paint. In the case of the huge screen
that Mr.. Edison is building for taking
at glance the entire internal organi-
zation of man, the crystals would
be spread directly on an inch plank.
The screen is made in the shape of
monster mill hopper, standing on
end. The face on which the CRYSTALS
are applied will be about eight feet
high and four feet broad. To this
face will be fastened sides that will
slant inward to a sharp point. AT
TINS point there will be left slit Just
large enough to see Though with
ease. This slit will be protected by
means OF rubber flap in such a way
as to exclude all light when the eye
is applied to it. The screen will be
set up SO that the side on which the
tungstate of calcium has been glued
races row of four or five Crookes
tupes, set one above the other at an
equal distance. The person to be
examined will then step in between
me screen and the liorht nnI Lo LII