The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1918-01-21
Shades of Dante,

There is a chamber of horrors
at Camp Lewis that out-Dantes
any chapter of the Inferno.
| IL is called the N-Ray ward. Like
all other rooms i'll the base hospi-
tai it is low ceiled, white walled
land bare of ornamentat,on. IL is
filled with apparatus shining and
deadly in appearance.
In daylight it isn't particularly
impressive, but when the light
tight door swings shut and some
body throws the switch that puts
in action n giant electrical trans
former, the room becomes Il VERT
table pocket-size edition of iades
done in CHASTITY green instead of
conventional red.
Some Free Verse
Here is picture of the X-Ray
Ward written in verse libre, as it
were:
Swapping green flames over
head.
A smell of ozone like brim-
'stone.
Naked men in cameo-white and
green relief and eyes giaring and
unnatural in purple-shadowed
sockets.
Men in white robes manipulate
ing sparkling metal cranks and
handles.
And a the end of the room-a
shimmering green screen that
turns men into living skeletons.
Like Blueprint
The screen is perhaps two feet
square and 1t shows on its surface
a blueprint of the internal ar
arrangements of the man who
stands behind It.
Before sits surgeon and he
reads the blueprint" in mono
tone of strange language.
neutrality-suspicious. m-free
both-sdes. Cough! Slight-en-
largement ventricle-clavicle nor
Imal. Cough-again! Shading-equal
cough-aga in-and-turn
What's it all about?
The X-Ray Ward is one of the
most important meshes in the
sieve that is screening the soldiers
at Camp Lewis and casting out
Those who are useless and even
dangerous members of the Ma
tional Army.
It's All Seeing
| Little can be concealed from
1.-THE ultraviolet eye of the thing
Before it lung patches of tubercu-
losis, the most deadly enemy oil
fighting men, are significant dark
shadows. Murmurs of the heart
that would mean weakness Of the
Tighter at the critical moment are
Iperlfectly visible and deformities
of the bones are shown in BLACK
and green.
Not every man goes behind thu
lscreen of the X-ray. Only those
whom the physicians conducting
1.-THE first examination suspect are
Iafflicted with diseases the instru
ment can detect are sent to thu
lX-ray experts. It's greatest use
lis in the examination Of suspected
tuberculosis cases.
I sometimes ErfS
at isn't infallible," said Cap
tain David c. Twichell, tubercu
losis consultant of the division ant
THE author of a monograph on thu
subject, but it makes the decision
for us in many cases.
The first step in the examine
ltion of a solder for the white
Iplague is the stethescope test. B,
lmeans of the delicate instrumen
1.-THE physician can hear the muir
muir and rustic of the air in dis
leased tissues. But he can't al
ways be quite sure of the result:
of this examination, and then thu
X-ray is brought into use.
800 "a Day
Perhaps one of the most eXper'
readers of the X-ray diagram O!
mortal man, at the hospital, Is
Capt. Ray w. Matson, chairman d
1.-THE tuberculosis board. The gov
eminent has a contract with Capt
Matson to examine its soldiers fol
the disease.
In the semi-darkness of the
miniature naughty place called
the Inward" day after day he
sits on his stool and reads the
silh ouette of soldiers insides.
One of the members of the ex-
aiming board, which includes a
considerable number Of physicians
is DR.. c. Quevli, tuberculosis ex.
pert of Tacoma.
Eight hundred examination a
day is the record of the experts in
lCharoe of "T ~ and II ic said