Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1930-04-18
Martyr to X-Ray Science
Has Had SIND Operation
BY PAUL
NFA Service Writer

BALTIMORE, Md, April 1s.- Il
think" said DR.. Frederick Henry
Baetjer the other day, that I'd bet
ter have some whiting done on this
fist"
Thus did the internationally IA
nous X-ray scientist and clinical
professor of Johns Hopkins Medical
School give orders for his f~ifty-sec-
ond major operation. There is no
accurate record Of the minor opera
tons, mere incidents In the life Of
"a pioneer Roentgenologist, but this
is the ~fifty-second to require anaes-
thesia and several weeks Of hospital
treatment.
DR.. Baetjer Is the last Of the old
guard" Contemporaries who devoted
their careers to early development
|of X-ray processes, now so essential
in nearly all branches Of medical
science. have paid with their lives
The Johns Hopkins professor has
paid with his health, but he intends
TO stay In the fight until the soaring
rays break down the final defense
Of the worlds greatest surgeons.
The last operation, involving skin
grating. was entirely successful. and
the doctor should be out Of the
hospital In a week or two.
Sacrificed His Health
He already has sacrificed seven
fingers and one thumb In trying to
tame the vengeful dragon which
breathes out invisible. stabbing
Roentgen rays. Several times the
dragon has come dangerously close
to nipping off an arm. The doctor
lost an eye in 1908. Two subsequent
operations removed the glands at
the juncture Of arms and shoulders.
Every few months, now and then,
he has had skin gratis performed to
cover the deep burns which car be
retarded, but apparently not halted
In their slowly destructive course.
Twenty-nine years OF this sort Of
thing would mark the souls as well
as the bodies Of most men. DR.. Baet-
ier. has been touched too, but not
in the way you would imagine. True,
he has grown to hate the ~appellation
OF martyr, though martyr he Ger
tainly Is. And he is i'll at q with
strangers. who. when meeting him.
too often thrust out cordial hands.
But among his friends. who are le-
gion, DR.. Baetjer is known as q gay
and good companion.
It is from these intimates, most Of
them prominent in various walks Of
life. that you learn to know the real
man in that wasting body. Only
among students and younger profess
sors at the medical school Is he q
hero to be held in silent reverence.
Close friends speak first Of his ready
sense OF humor, his shenanigans at
fishing camps, and the perilS Of
being his opponent at bridge. One
OF these men said.
He knows more funny stories
than anybody In town / shouldn't
be surprised II. right this minute.
over at the hospital, he's making up
q limerick thatIl be sprung on the
bunch at the Baltimore Club"
Writes Limericks
Back IN 1921, when DR.. Baetjer
was honor. guest at a dinner COM
memorating his twentieth ami
versary as a Roentgeonologist, with
200 scientists gathered from the
United States, England, France and
Germany, he was officially credited
with authorship Of the jingle:
Mary had a little skirt;
II was too short by half.
Who gives q damn for Mary's lamb
When he can see her calf?"
Baetjer was a native Of Balti-
more. and graduated from Johns
Hopkins Medical school in 1901. Only
six years before. Konrad Roentgen
Of Germany had made the partially
accidental discovery Of greenish
f%luorescent rays which, because Of
their unknown qualities, were called
X, or unknown, rays. Baetjer decid-
ed to specialize in the development
OF this short wave length phenomen
on which even then could be made
to reveal innermost bodily secrets
to ordinary surgery.
No one then knew Of the safe
guards in universal use today-the
Coolidge tube. guarded by lead
glass, aluminium filters, and Lead
limpregnated rubber gloves Raet-