The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-01-09
X RAYS ON THE BATTLEFIELD.


Resources Of Modern Science Contrast
ed With CHASTITY Realities of Modern
War
Surgeon Major Beevor, r. A. M. c.,
gave a grimly interesting lecture on
Monday night to the members of the
Camera club on the subject of Work
with the X Rays on the Battlefield"
Mr.. Wilson Noble presided. Major
Beevor had obtained the experience
upon which his lecture was grounded in
the recent campaign against the Afri-
dis on the northwest frontiers of India.
A Drawer enemy than the Afridi, he re-
not more skillful artist in the use of
firearms. All that an Afridi wanted
was to have a go at his enemy with
something hard. He would use stone
for bullet, or any sort Of bullet he
could get, and he was fond of cutting
up telegraph wire SO as to have good
scattering fire. With these varied re-
sources he would shoot hostile Afridi
or eathen"-meaning white man
with equal readiness. There was,
therefore, an unusual assortment Of
missiles used in the war, inf1icting a
great variety of wounds Anaesthotics
We're blessing to the surgeon as well
as to the patient. because the subject
of an operation was passive, but of all
the inventions which surgery had re-
ceived from science, he thought there
was nothing that was such an incalcu-
liable benefit to the surgeon-especially
the army surgeon--as the X rays,
which enabled him to localize and de-
In n fprafut, hnI1y IL, he b,yt "a n,
ism. Major Besvor exhibited on the
screen lantern photographs of number
Of radiograms which he had taken In
the course of the campaign. They were
really very horrible things to see and
hear about. but did not seem so dread
full as they were when explained in gem
tle tones, and with the lingering ten
derness which an enthusiastic surgeon
always manifests over en- interesting
case" There We're fractured and
splintered bones of the arm, hand, leg,
knee, pelvis, foot and chest, always
with the dark patches or spots which
revealed the presence of a bullet, or
part Of bullet-sometimes crowd of
little fragments sprinkled about the in
jured part.
The descriptions treated of tendons
that could not act by reason of the
presence of the foreign body"-a dis
guislng euphemism for half an ounce or
an ounce of lead entering a man at a
great velocity; of blood poisoning, of
rapid and extreme swelling, Of necrosis
of agonies, Of pain. The native Afridi
bullet is made of soft lead and APP
pears to have great capacity for !
up and scattering when it en-
bone or even fibrous aissue.
In many cases no probe could have |
found the foreign body'-indeed in |
some instances the wounds had been
probed Intellectually before the injured |
men We're sent to the lecturer for the |
X Ray or the tluorescent screen to dis |
cover the hidden cause of the trouble. |
The subjects of the operations were
both Indian and British, and often the
lecturer would tell of the brave exploit |
which the soldier had performed. 1t |
seemed to have been a contest in which
equal courage was shown by all the
One subject was a Gordon
wounded in the storming of |
Dargai; others were Sikh soldiers, an
other was General Woodhouse, who, in
the opinion of the lecturer, did not |
know what fear was. for he walked
about amid a storm of lead. While the |
general was lying wounded in the tent
thirteen bullets passed through it, But
nobody seemed to know what fear was.
A Sikh jemadar, wounded in a Tirah
1etile, had previously at Fort Gulistan