TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9387, 10 April 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Judging by appearances

The New no English or Continental Photography, newspaper must be pub

lished now without containing an account of some successful experiment wibh the •' Rdntgen rays " shadow photography. The interesb in the discovery shows no signs of abating, and while scientific men, and next to them surgeonß, are most concerned iv the experiments which are continually being made, all classes follow the results with the keeneso interest. The process has already been used with marked success in surgical cases, both in England and on the Continent, and the manner in which it has facilitated the discovery of the exact position of foreign substances in human beings seems to prove thab in this respest ib is one of the most beneficial discoveries of modern days. In Aberdeen recently a fragment of a needle, an inoh long, was removed from a girl's foot, the surgeon making the incision at the spot where the needle was shown in the photograph—or shadowgraph as it ia called—bhus avoiding the usual probing. In another case the exact position of a fish bone was shown in a man's throat. In another a doctor was enabled to declare, after seeing a shadow photograph of a hand, thab bhe owner thereof would, ab some future period, surfer from gout, two very slight protuberances being shown to exist just under the middle joints of the first and second fingers. In a case ab the Munioh Hospital, the patient had been shot in the knee four months previously and was convinced that tbe bullet had lodged in the knee joint, but the surgeons sought for ib without result. The joint was severely inflamed and swollen. A Rdntgen photograph showed that the bullet actually lay outside the joint, close to tbe inside o 1 the thigh-bone, and the surgeon was able to extracb it immediately.

A Berlin* scientific man, Its Future speaking of Rontgen's discoUse, very,said:—"l believe that

the time will soon come when a badly injured subject will be brought into the accident receiving-room of a hospital, where the surgeons, after rendering urgent aid, will instantaneously photograph tbe wounded members, and then decide upon the course of further treatment. Probing bullet wounds will become a medical treatment of the past. Foreign substances in the body, such as needles aud pins, will be immediately located. A splintered thigh from gunshot, a smashed elbow joint will be so exactly revealed that the humanest of surgeons will nob for a minute hesitate whether to amputate or not. But the brain, strange to say, remains excluded ; being enclosed within bone wails no foreign body can be discovered. Runtgenrays are bjfliid here." Considerable improvements must be made before the Rdntgen process can be made of use in cue photographing of any but the thinner part* of the human body, »uch as to* band or foot, as,the length of

time requisite for photographing the spino or the bones of the thigh would be too great. But this improvement will doubtless be made before long. Already it is stated that the presence of calcareous deposits in the internal organs has been detected by means of the new photography, and Edison ia busy inventing a process to photograph the human brain by means of the Rbatgen rays. In thi3, ib is further alleged, he has been forestalled by a Dr. Simon, of New York, who has succeeded after three years* work, hastened at the end by the news of Routgeu'a discoveries and Edison's intentions, in photographing his own brain. At present, however, he refuses to explain his process iv detail, and only says that he used an ordinary camera with platinum plates Two Paris journalists havo applied the process to the discovery of the contents of letters, aud are said to have photographed the contents of a letter written by a brother journalist through a thick euvelope. If, J however, a sheet of tinfoil is wrapped round a letter the ra.3'3 cannot penetrate, and the secrecy of the contents is preserved. If this were nob so, State and other secrets might be in some dauger of being exposed to the danger of becoming public property through the agency-of the new camera fiend. As it is, there will probably be a large aud increasing demand for tinfoil.

There is at present in AusProfessor tralia the son of one of the Agassiz most celebrated naturalists in thab ever lived, the gre«.b Australia. Professor Agassiz, who left Europe in 1846 and went to America, eventually being appointed Professor of Geology and Zoology at Harvard University. The present Professor Agassiz holds the position of director of the natural history department of the same College, and he has come to Australia to pursue his investigations into the coral reefs of tho Great Barrier Reef, which runs up the eastern coast of the continent. The Professor ha 9 been iutoresled in coral reefa, ib appears, ever since he was a small boy, aud he has done enough work and study in this deeply interesting branch of natural history atd in deep sea explorations to constitute him an authority on the subject. He has explored, ab difforenb timos, the Carribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the coast of Florida, the coral reefs of tho Sandwich Islands, the Bahamas, the Bermudas and Cuba, besides taking part in numerous deep sea dredging expeditions. This year ho decided to explore the coral reefs of the Pacific, and commences with the Great Barrier reef, intending subsequently to have a look at every reef of any consequence in the Pacific Ocean. To further this object, ib seems, he applied to President Cleveand and Mr Olney, Secretary of State, aud these gentlemen approaching the British Government the latter promised every assistance in their power. Mr Joseph Chamberlain ia a friend of the Professor's, and gladly did all in his power with the Admiralty and the colonial Governments. The Admiralty advised him where to commence operations, and the Colonial Office requested the various colonial Governments to assist him whenever and wherever opportunity offered. Professo r Agassiz has chartered a steamer, and intends to work carefully up the reef, beginning where the corals commence and winding up in Torres Straits. He expects this programme will occupy two months. The whole cost of the expedition comes out of his own pocket. There is no Government grant. He explained to a Sydney interviewer that his interest is centred not only in coral reefs, but in the distribution of surface animals in depth. For the latter purpose he has nets so arranged as to olose ab depths varying from 50 to 300 fathoms, and so far as his experience has gone he finds that animals diminish iv number very fast as the depth increases. He wishes to apply those tests in the Southern Hemisphere. He does nob expect to tow below 300 fathoms. Professor Agassiz does nob apparently altogether agree with the Darwinian theory of the formation of barrier reefs and atolls, though we are nob told what his own theories are. This is not the first time the Great Barrier Reef has been explored, for Mr Saviile Kent some years ago published a splendid monograph on the subject, bub there is doubtless plenty of work still left for the distinguished American naturalist.