X-RAY VICTIMS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 211, 30 May 1908, Page 10

X-RAY VICTIMS.

HOW SAFETY HAS-COME BY EXPERI- ' ENGE. OPINION OF MEDICAL MEN. The recent agitation undertaken by Sir Oliver Lodge and laymen generally in favour of Dr. Hall Edwards to provido somo form of recognition in return for his sufferings through tho practice of the X-rays is' a striking example (says tho London "Standard") of tho harm that can result , from imperfect knowledge. Inquiries made in medical circles liajc shown that the result has been to alarm the public as regards the widespread use of the rays, and to make them shy of submitting themselves to X-ray examination or X-ray treatment, and that a feeling of not unnatural bitterness has been engendered irj the unhappily large number of thdso who have received similar injuries, but whoso sufferings have not been brought before tho attention of tho'public. Three classes of men have suffered mutilation: those who applied the treatment in the early stages of the discovery, those who investigated the properties of tho rays from tho standpoint of pure science, and those who have taken up tho manufacture and testing of tho X-ray tubes, >"••.- This is a portion of tho price that has been paid in this country in roturn for tho benefits of X-ray treatment. An analysis of tlio cases , shows an extraordinary reversal of_ tho ordinary incidence of disease and of misfortunes. Among the medical practitioners and, scientific inquirers it is only: those who had considerable wealth, either of their own or of institutions, such as, hospitals, at their back, who suffored from tho treatment. Those who were forced to gain their early experience by the use of apparatus of lesser strength learnt by tno experience of others what was .the danger of the rays, and took steps for their protection when they camo to work the larger coils. And injuries aro happily now no. longer unavoidable. WHAT THE RAYS CAN, DO. . * . Tho dramatic possibilities of tho rays wore so great, 'oven in their earliest stages, that tho public- is thoroughly acquainted with theiij'uso in tho investigation of broken limbs. ■ In many ways this is unfortunate, for the public, whilst fully .convinced of its competence to interpret tJio photographs that arc taken of fractured-Jimbs, refuses to recognise the-truth that there is . no need for the fractured ends of',- bones to be brought into . apposition. Correctly interpreted, howover, radiographs afford an excellent i moans of diagnosing fractures painlessly, ' and, indeed, of determining in doubtful cases whether a fracture has or has not occurred. There , are, however, cases of greater importance, where the X-rays determine issues of lifo and death. In the' field hospitals in South' Africa they were used daily to locate the position of bullets when tho use of the probe would liavo been out of the question, and made it possible to havo recourse to prompt, and .thus effectual) treatment by tno surgeon. Thoso who arc not conversant with tho work of tho great London hospitals, • however, havo no conception of tho innumerable cases that occur of children who havo swallowed metal toys, pennies, and what not; who aro brought to tho hospitals by their, mothors for relief. Such a 'caso. recently ocourred at St.. George's Hospital. A little child 1 of three; or four years old was brought into -the ward for . treatment. _ Ho had , sucked, a 'toy, lietal horso into his lungs, and tho surgical',.wards' gavo up tho caso as. 0110-;bbyoud their skill. Tho child was taluin to tho inedical wards-and steadily, grew' worse.; ', Tho 'medical authorities appealed to tlio ! ,surgical' staff, and a Surgeon was found to t'ako the responsibility and the risk, s ' Instead of being 'taken to tho well-lit operating theatre, tho child went to tho X-ray room, where tho-work is done in tho fitful light cast by tlio rays. Every--thing was prepared, arid'tho rays threw a feoblo shadow of the little toy horse',upon the screen. Only the skilled eyes of the man in charge of tho dopartniont could gauge its oxact position,'• and it waa under his direction that the surgeon'did his; work, and at tho third attempt found >and' removed an object that he had seen only through, another's .eyes." In,, twelve hours the child was well, and none : 'the_i worso v for; his'experienco. Tho application of : the ; .-ray's has grown stoadily.i Splinters of'glass or metal havo been located in the oyos and their ox 7 traction has been mado possible. , , PROTECTION. Even if it Were necessary to appeal to tho medical profession to give tho X-ray treatment at .thsir own porsonal risk tho benefits, to be derived are so great that the risk and. danger would be run, but happily tho nature of the rays is so fully understood that there is' no need for any operator to suffer injury in tho future. Not only is a thin sheet of lead and many othor metals ample protection from tho rays, stopping thoir progress, ; but the same good - result can bo ' secured by • a sheet of lead glass. This in no way interferes with tho use.of' tho rays. The X-ray vacuum tubes are .sheathed,'except at ono place left free for the' passago of tho rays, and lead glass is placed between . the' issuing/ray 3 and the person of tho oporator. . Recently an iu.geuious protective plan has been devised by Mr. Dean. Ho has >placed all the controlling portions of tho apparatus within a lead-lined .chamber; but tho coil-' and tube omitting tho rays are: placed outside. The pationtis. set. in position, and it is impossible for tho rays to bo produced unless the. operator is: screened from .thom by standing within tho chamber. Every . door must be, closed before tho necessary apparatus can bo put in motion. In tho. factories for. testing l tubes protective devices' aro now' almost universal, and the time seems' to have arrived when they should be made compulsory. 'The- agitation about X-rays, as' it has been conducted,' is liable to-do incalculable harm. The fact that 1 is'impressed ,is that the X-rays are in tho nature of a poison, if taken in enormous excess, and this is a fact that' cannot* be denied. But it should bo borno in mind that the rays can bo measured with accuracy,' and that" in their power , for doing injury they are - similiir to. ovory form of treatment that has ever been' devised; liable to do harm' if takoii in'excess, in their application at the hospitals and in private practice they aro even safer than tho most harmless of the drugs that .have been prescribed from the earliest days of medicine, and ovon the most innocuous drug would wreck the finest constitution if every doctor himself took each ;doso of modicino that ho prescribed to his patients.