The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-05-27
DIAMOND. SUCCESSFULLY PHO.
ToGRAPHED BY x-RAY.
RECENT TEXAS CASE CITED
Doctor Prickett Calls Attention to
Recovery Of Gem Through Radio
Buckley Still Watched.

Accepting as true the story tele-
graphed from a Texas town a few
days ago, and which was published in
different newspapers, the gentleman
at Helena who says that it is impos-
sible to place diamond in the intest-
ines of a man by means OF the radio
graph, is not authority on such mat
ters." So said Doctor Prickett yes
terday when spoken to about the pho
tograph he made last Sunday OF the
internal apparatus OF Ed Buckley, the
alleged diamond thief.
The Helena man to whom the doc
tor referred was quoted in one OF the
newspapers OF that city as saying
that because of the complete trans
parency CT a diamond to photograph
one by means of the ROentgen light
was an impossibility as it offered no
resistance to the light, and conse-
uuently made no reflection on the SEN !,
sitized plate.
THE story to which l have refer
ence detailed the particulars OF just
such am experiment as we made and
in a case exactly like the one here.
A man had stolen a diamond, and to
avoid detection swallowed the stone.
He was caught in the act and the pro-
position was made to submit him to
the X-ray. The radiograph resulting
not only showed the gem, but its ex-
act location. There was no doubt OF
the mans guilt. When the subject
of an operation for the recovery OF
the stone was broached to him he at
once consented, conditional that the
owner of it would promise not to pro-
secute him for the theft This was
done and when the man was opened
the stone was found. The sCwner OF
it betrayed the cost of the operation.
"Now, ii this story is true, and
there is mo reason for do1tbting 1t,
the Helena man must certainly be
mistaken when he says that a dia-
mond lodged in the intestines or
stomach of a person cannot be photo
graphed, for we have tolerably good
testimony that it has been DONE
Stone Still Missing.
Whether Buckley really told the
truth when he said that instead OF
having swallowed the stone, as the
Miles City officers who arrested him
declare he did, he dropped it onto the
floor and it was picked up by his part
ner, is something that the local all-
thorities would like to know. Nine
days have passed since he is sup
, posed to have permitted the diamond
i to. slip down his throat. Notwitlh-
! standing that he has been under the
constant surveillance of a man day
, and night since then, and it is be
lieved that it has been an impossible
sty for him to dispose of the stone in
l any way, no trace of it has been OBJ
5 tanned. 1t may be that nature is
: slower than ordinary and that the
diamond is still inside of him, but
Z there are some who are beginning te
be skeptical.
= Those who have been there anG
5 profess to know what they are say
h ing, claim that in the Kimberley dia
t mond mines, whenever any OF The
n men employed there are discharged
4 or quit work, they are not permitted
n to leave the enclosure or stockade II
r which the miners are confined unit
It after the expiration OF a week from
y the day of their quitting. At tht
g end of that time it is considered saft
e to let them go, as anything that may
y have been taken into the intestines il
regarded as certain to have been
l. eliminated.
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