The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

Vol. I. No. 3 H)anoev in 3HRa\>8 Human Tissues Injured by Constant Contact Finger Naifs and Skin Drop Off The effect of X-rays upon human tissue is shown in the peculiar case ofWilliam Paley, an electrician, of No. 203 East Thirteenth street. Paley had been a practical electrician for years, having studied at the South Kensington Museum, England, in 1878. Since his experience with the X-rays he has been perfecting the "kaltechnoseope," a portable improvement upon the vitascope, which he has invented. Paley is six feet high, weighs 270 pounds, and, until last Summer, was never ill. He was at Asbury Park, and undertook to operate an X-ray exhibition . He conducted the exhibition there and in Willow Grove, Pa., until October. "I held the object through which I was to send the ray in front of the screen with my hand," he said. " The four fingers of my left hand were thus exposed to the ray from the knuckles to the tips. " Early in August my fingers began to itch, and then little water boils appeared under the skin, some of which filled with blood. My fingers grew red as if they were scalded. " In a week the skin peeled from the fingers. I tried to protect my hand as much as possible and used the right hand. I had the same trouble with the forefinger of that hand. ' ' The skin of my fingers grew red and peeled off twice while I was working the X-rays. My nails began to fall off a month after the first redness appeared. I have new nails on the four fingers of my left hand and on the forefinger of the right hand. "A slight swelling of the fingers accompanied tlie redness and disappeared with it. Towards the last of the exhibition I let those who wished to see the rays hold the object they wished to look through, and in this way I avoided further irritation." Mr. Paley said the man who conducted the X-ray exhibition at Willow Grove before his arrival there suffered in the same way. "I am not forty years old, but see how g"ay my hair is," he said. "My wife says it has become gray in the last few months, and I attribute it to the rays. My eyesight seems poorer, and at times I have a slight buzzing in the ears, which, I think, is the result of the rays." Paley does not show any efftct of the rays now except the grayness of his hair and the shortness of his nails, which have not grown out the full length. THE PHONOSCOPE £=1Ra£ litems Quite a budget of discoveries in connection with the Rontgen ray investigations have been reported from the Continent within a few days. That reported by Prof. Friedrich to the Vienna Academy of Sciences is the most important. The Professor discovered certain black rays that issue from the vacuum tube and pass through the human body. The photographs produced by means of these rays, which the Professor calls "critical rays," are not the same when taken of a living body as from a dead one. Photographs of living hands show the skeleton as in the Rontgen photographs. A dead hand appears in full, showing all the fleshy integument, while the bones remain invisible. It is thought that, by means of these rays, it may be ascertained whether a person is really dead. The use of the Rontgen rays as a hair extermin. ator is also revived. Dr. Freund, also of Vienna, tried them upon a boy whose spine was hidden by an abundant crop of hair. The maladv is known to the faculty as hypertrichosis. Dr. Freund turned the rays upon the boy's back and the superfluous hair vanished, roots and all. The boy, no longer an infant phenomenon, has been shown to the medical society in Vienna, and photographs of his condition before and after are circulating in that city. The Prussian Government has appropriated $12,000 for Rdutgen ray experiments during the current year. All metals and certain metalloids are endowed with a greater or less degree of resistance to the Rontgen rays. Halogeuic substances, such as iodine, bromine and chlorine are opaque to X-rays, which property belongs to the substance itself, as it appears iu all its chemical combinations with an intensity proportionate to the amount of the element opaque to the Rontgen rays which the combination contains. Consequently, radiographics will form a qualitative and quantitative method of ehemicel analysis that will enable us to easily discover certain pharmaceutical adulterations. Strange to say, there is quite a number of liquids which are transparent to ordinary7 light and opaque to the X-rays. To this group belong hydrochloric acid, chloroform, chloral, tetrachloride of carhon, sulphide of carbon, and particularly bromoform. nam moth X=Ray Coil The largest Rontgen ray apparatus in the world has just been completed by Professor A. Fessenden, of the Western University, for the Academy of Science and Art. The machine is enclosed in a neat oak cabinet, four feet high and two feet wide, and weighs but 175 pounds. Handles are provided on either side to carry it. The most important feature is the coil which rests near the base, between the legs of the cabinet. This is composed of seventeen coils, and is wound with fifty miles of small wire. It is arranged to give a spark over twenty inches long, while the capacity of the machine reaches thirty inches. The current is received from two portable storage batteries, the ordinary direct or the alternating currents. The main circuit is broken by a revolving contact breaker which makes about two hundred breaks a second. This is important when it is known that the sparks are produced when the current on the large wire is broken. The contact breaker is inimessed in ordinary petroleum, and is adjacent to a magnet, both of which put out any light produced in the breaker. This is encased in a small box on the top of the cabinet, and is driven by a small one-horse power motor placed beside it. The suddenness of the breaking of the 15 sparks is regulated by an adjustable condensor, also on the cabinet top. It is simply an alternation of tin foil sheets and parrafin paper. It arrests sparks and makes the break more sudden. Fastened to the side of the cabinet is an adjustable arm for holding the Rontgen ray tube. This is so constructed with several elbows that it can be placed in any position. If necessary it can be placed beneath the bed upon which the patient lies and the photograph taken without moving or disturbing the sick one. A drawer is also inserted in the cabinet for the storing of assorted sizes of tubes . The tube is of Professor Fessenden's own discovery and represents the latest and most economical principles. It was worked out six months ago, and has been in successful operation. It was designed in accordance with a principle that the positive electrode must not be nearer any part of the fluorescent glass than the length of spark the coil will give. The positive terminal is, therefore, enclosed in a long tube connected with the main bulb. The coil is the most powerful ever successfully made. A photograph can be taken through the thickest part of the body "in fifteen minutes, and the surgeon can easily see through every part of the body with the fluoroscope. IRecent Unventions An Electric Eye For DelU cate Surgical Operations The latest adjunct which science gives to the surgical operator is an electric eye. Strictly speaking, it is not an eye at all, but rather a sort of searchlight which is used to aid the human eye in delicate surgical operations. Oftentimes surgeons are handicapped in their work by the fact that they cannot see distinctly the parts upon which they must operate. The formation of the human body is such that in many instances no light can be put directly upon the particular portion of the human anatomy which is to be operated upon. The eye can see to the extent of human capability, but in intricate operations, however strong the light in the operating theatre may be, the rays lack that penetration and power of concentration so necessary to delicate surgical operations. Professor Charles E. Quimby, of Bellevue Hospital, New York, has patented this new aid to surgery. From an ordinary electric light wire a connectiou is made with this device, which fits the face much in the manner of a pair of spectacles. The appliance in itself consists of two small incandescent lamps, which are fitted one above and the other below the eye of the operator. They are so adjusted that the rays focus at a point sufficiently near the ordinary point of vision to throw all the power of the electric rays upon the point desired. It is practically a portable searchlight adapted to the operating theatre. The lamps are in the form of an annular glass globe, with an illuminating conductor. An insulated backing, consisting of a metal leather lined band, which passes around the head, prevents the heat from affecting the wearer, and at the same time holds the light in position and prevents any possible effect which otherwise the electricity might have upon the wearer. The lights more nearly resemble long glass tubes than anything else. Within these tubes are placed the lamps, which can be adjusted to any desired angle. When a direct downward ray is desired, a small reflector is fixed above the light and the rays thrown in the desired direction.