The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-07-12
BAKERS SURGEON
 IS ALSO VICTIM
 OF THE X-RAY
Dr. Leonard, Who Treated Lamp Inventor, Loses Arm From Cancer-Many Give Life to Work.

Philadelphia, July 12.-Dr. Charles L. Leonard, chief of the Polyclinic l Hospital staff, an expert in electro l therapeutics, is in a serious condition l from the use of the X-ray. Growths i in the nature of cancer starting in one hand made it necessary some time ago to remove the hand, and recently the 1 whole arm has been removed in an l effort to check the spread of the dis ease.
 | Dr. Leonard has been working with l the rays for many years. He assisted Dr. William L. Clarke, also of Phila- l delphta, in treating with the rays Bur 1 ton B. Baker, the Roentgen ray expert who died in Hartford, Conn.,, Thurs | day. Surgeons are using every means in their power to arrest the disease, but they. agree that there is no cer- tain cure.
 pr. Clarke, who is an expert on the Roentgen rays for the University of Pennsylvania and chief of the depart 1nent of electro-therapeutics at St. Agnes Hospital, said yesterday that the rays used in treating cancerous growtIs also cause them when a per- son has been continually subjected to the rays and that many medical and scientific men were giving themselves as martyrs to their profession. Tn speaking of MT. Bakers case pr.
 
 for the last time in Philadelphia on February 3. After that, however, MT Baker kept Dr. Clarke informed of the progress of his case by letter, and the records will, be made the basis of a report to the American Medical As sociation by pr. Clarke.
 MT. Baker, pr. Clarke said, began his work with the Roentgen rays in 1895 and continued 1t until 1905, when the parts of his body which had been exposed to the rays began to show small wartIikeH growths. and with these came a general diIation of the blood vessels. Alterations appeared next, and MT. Baker went to PhiladeI- phia and consulted Dr. Clarke. Treatment arrested the disease for time, but six months ago it grew veru1ent again and it became evident that the cancer had affected his whole system. Radium and surgery were tried; diseased muscles were cut away. but without stopping the disease.
 In his last letter to Dr. Clarke; dated June 23, MT. Baker said that he could write only with difficulty because of the contraction of the muscles and he feared he would soon lose all power of movement pr. Clarke said that in treating MT. Baker with the rays Dr. Leonard had shielded himself with screens of lead a quarter of an inch thick.
 Dr. Joseph O'Malley, medical chief of St Agnes Hospital, says that there have been some thirty or forty dives lost through the continual use of the Roentgen ray. The victims were all scientific men who used the rays con tinually. Eighteen--or twenty deaths had resulted among physicians and scientific men in the United States alone within the past decade, he said.
 Dr. O'Malley explained that the ma jority. if not all. of the victims were
 men who had used the rays in the earlier years of their discovery and before the danger attached to their use was understood. The experiment. CTS in those days exposed themselves to the rays much more than is done today, and the use of leaden screens was not general.
 With the frequent deaths and the discovery that the rays do cause can cerous growths greater care began to be exercised. Screens are now arrang- ed SO that the operator is not exposed to the rays at all, even his hands being protected. It is the hands of the oper ators which in most of the cases have become affected first.
 pr. O'Malley said that the rays had been used successfully in treating su- perhciai cases of cancer, but that nc cure had yet been discovered for ad- vanced cases. Radium Is being used in Philadelphia hospitals on cases where an operation cannot be per- formed because of the location of the cancer. and valuable results already have been achieved by it's use