Photoplay (Jul - Dec 1919)

68 rhotoplay Magazine li\e were made which, when printed and projected normally, caused the patieni to walk 250 times slower than he did in real life. This film was projected before a gathering of surgeons who were enabled to study each minute movement of the naked limbs of the patient. The trouble was located in this way and the patient was soon on the road to complete recovery. As a result of this e.xperience, the moving picture screen has been made part of the laboratory equipment of the College of Physicians ami Surgeons anti new uses are being found for it at regular intervals. The Clinico Film Library of New York lily, at tremendous expense, has fdmed over 200 reels of surgical operations, performed by the worlds most eminent surgeons, personally, before the lens. These films are, of course, not suitable for public exhibition. They are shown before clinics in the leading medical schools of the country and before gatherings of physicians. This Library covers the principal major operations in surgery and dentistry. The reels vary from 500 to 1 500 feet. Films have proven to be of great value in rehabilitating soldiers wounded in the war. The Government agencies devoted to rehabilitation have been supplied with films and small projection machines and at the various base hospitals, these films are being regularly used by the surgeons and experts in charge. Terhaps among the most notable instances of utility of films in medical practice found in the war surgery was practiced by the famous Doctor Alexis Carrel of the Rockefeller Institute, a firm believer in the value of visualization as applied to teaching in certain forms of surgery. Operations of the most marvelous character performed in the war hospitals of France were filmed in detail and these picture records will soon be available in the United States for civilian practitioners. One of these films shows Dr. Carrel removing a piece of shrapnel imbedded in the heart of a soldier. Another depicts the method by which the face of a wounded man, blown almost off, is remodeled back to human semblance again. Tests made with soldiers suffering from nervous and psychological disorders, brought about by trench Hfe and shell shock were filmed by the .American physicians who enlisted in the war service when America first went in. Men who trembled with fear long after being removed from the noise and smoke of battle have been pictured in movies for the further examination by physicians in the United States who will thus always be ab'le to study them at close range. These films are held as exceedingly valuable since they show disorders which are only prevalent in time of war. Their leisurely examination at a later date, it is believed, will add much knowledge to that already garnered by the American medical units in France and Belgium. For instance Dr. Pont, a famous surgeon of France, at the Zayr Hospital. Lyons, France, performed before the camera his wonderful art of plastic facial restoration. The patient in question had a face seamed and seared by machine gun fire. Ask This Department 1. For information concerning motion pictures for all places other than theaters. 2. To find for you the films suited to the purposes and programs of any institution or organization. 3. Where and how to get them. 4. For information regarding projectors and equipment for showmg pictures. Address: Educational Department, Photoplay Magazine, Chicago (Send stamped envelope). He is shown before and after Dr. Font's operation. How this face was restored after a short time by modern methods is depicted in a fashion that will help the surgeons in war or peace. In the speculative field of moving pictures in medicine, there are many leading surgeons of the world who endorse films as a useful method of teaching those surgical operations which must be seen in order to be understood. The fact that clinics form such an important part of the education of any medical student is an indication that there is a great deal that must actually be seen in order to be appreciated and remembered on the part of the stuoent body. By means of films, the world's greatest specialists may be shown to thousands of students at little cost and working under clinical conditions that are ideal. Medical men agree that this lack of ideal clinical conditions marks the chief difference between the more efficient and less efficient colleges where surgery is taught. The screen has been found to possess full efficiency in this work because of its wide range of visualization. The close up permits a view of the greatest detail. The microscopic attachment is easily possible now and an enterprising New York surgeon has been successful in applying the X-ray in connection with the microscopic attachment which makes possible, owing to new color processes, moving-natural-color-microscopic-x-ray-close up pictures! In dentistry, moving pictures have been used to a greater extent than in any other branch of medicine. A film depicting the care of the teeth, posed for by American school children is making the rounds of American cities at '"health week" meetings where it is featured usually on an outdoor screen. The National Tuberculosis Association has long used films as a means of warning the people against the disease and has just recently produced another film which will be widely shown by means of portable projectors in the hands of its district agents. Through the Publicity Service Bureau of the Association, films telling the dread stor>' of tuberculosis are rented for a nominal daily rental to the 1500 local organizations who book the films simultaneously with local health campaigns. These films find their way to the screens of high school and church screens, lodges, Y. M. C. A. branches and other places where people gather in numbers. One tuberculosis picture that has much popularity is called "Hope — A Red Cross Seal Story." The film tells the small towns why it should enlist in the war against consumption. It carries an interesting '"story"' or plot. Another, '"The Price of Human Lives," has been projected before hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. "The Lone Game" shows how a poor consumptive goes West with $20 in his pocket, trusting that he may be cured and not realizing that he can be cured at home just as easily. The working man and tuberculosis is the theme of the Association's production, "The Temple of Moloch." "The Great Truth" which has been projected by war workers in France, emphasizes the fact pictorially that tuberculosis is a communicable disease. Movies Do Not Hurt the Eyes TWV. average per.-on may attend the .>howin(; of thirty reels of movies per week without hurting their eyesight, declares (ieorge T. Hill, of Youngstown, O., writing in the Optical Journal and Review. "Pictures shown under favorable conditions,"' he says, "do not cause any more fatigue than reading or writing, or any fine work that requires concentration of vision. '"With the picture shows at the standard that they are kept in most places, the care in seating, mechanism, screen and films and the science of photography in its present state, we find the eye more often at fault than the pictures." In dUcui-ing the effect of moving pictures on the eyes he shows that the physical, mental or nervous make-up of the person may cause a condition (hat will interfere with the enjoyment of a show but may be onlv a sign that the individual should consult an oculist. Among the conditions which would contribute to eye annoyance are several that could be remedied by the manager — and these conditions are seldom found in the progressive house. Comfort is a big factor — comfort as provided by proper seating which allows the spectator to relax and by ventilation that permits normal breathing and keeps the blood circulating normally. The illumination too is important — poorly placed wall or ceiling lights may contribute no little discomfort. With the present standard of projection and films, the average theatre has few things to guard against. Poor projection machinery or scratched films are cited as really injurious. If the spectator has any defect of vision the flickering film is declared to be "distinctly harmful." And such a film is also pronounced annoying to persons with normal eyes. The proper recommendation in this case is that the indi\-idual hunt up a better picture show.