The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-10-28
Frederick Haskin's Letter
ecial Correspondence of Argus
Seeing Through People.

trifie after being fixed, the docto,
had found
The other day he met an eYcs,
ton at the other extreme. WON
an patient had so responsive a me-,
and remained in place so perfer,lS
that the doctor looked down at he.
hand to confirm his deduction tb,,
she was married. To his surnriss
she wore no rings. He told bs-
about his little experiments and on.
planned that she was d very INNS
ual type. She laughed and said
that she was an artist She knew
what he wanted, because she was
used to posing models.
There is only one amusing thiny
about having an N-ray picturs
taken of a stomach, and that is the
penny In taking such a picture il
is necessary to locate and mark ths
individuals stomach exactly before
the plate can be made. The posi-
ton of the stomach varies in differ
ent persons, and for guide a penny
is sometimes fastened on the bOly
with bit of adhesive. Occasionally
the doctor will forget to remove this
apparatus, and there are some in
teresting reactions.
The Mysterious Penny.
One man wrote back to the doctor
to say that the penny had come Of.
He added that he had worn it two
weeks and it had done him no good
whatever. Another patient, a WON
an, returned the coin in some en-
barrassment, believing that she had
somehow taken coin that did not
belong to her. She explained that
the doctor would not doubt be as
surprised as she was to know that
a penny had in some mysterious
way got attached to her. She sup
posed it must have happened at the
hospital, and as she was sure it did
not belong to her she wished to
return it.
X-rayS are now recognized as
successful means OF removing ton
sis and of treating goiter and dis
eased tissue in the nose ant throat
Before this method was put into
use there was always difficulty in
getting the immigrant mother to
have her child operated on for dis
eased tonsils
Understanding no English, and
alarmed by the explanations OF in
terDreters, the mother was fearful
that her child's throat was to be
cut. The promise that her sons
health was to be improved by an
operation performed at the eX-
pense of the city did not TeassuTe
her.
With the X-ray such cases are ba'
ing handled easily Inc rays are
painless. In fact, any one who did
not see the apparatus would not
know treatment was being given
The child can be brought to the hos
pital and its mother assured that
he is not to be touched by knife
The child is laid on a table and the
rays strike up from under the table
through a place especially pre-
pared. The mother sits by the
patient and holds his hand and in
less than half an hour the treat
ment is over. After several treat
ments the tonsils are gone.
One of the latest experiments
with X-rays is a connection with
diphtheria carriers. The diphtherla
carrier goes about, unconscious
that his tonsils, nose, and ear pas
sages reek with germs and that he
is giving the disease to his more
susceptible friends. There are a
great many of these carriers and
they are a serious menace TO the
health of a community, though they
are not responsible for the danger
they carry.
In one city, Detroit, a doctor IS
making a series of tests to deter
mine whether X-ray treatments
will rid these persons Of the
germs permanently, ~
are told that II ont of 10 tons1
cases, two out of four ear cases
and four out of five nasal cases
were cured by N-ray treatments.
The doctor is continuing his
treatments. but he is chiefly Intsr-
ested in knowing how long the III
is going to last.