X-RAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1927, Page 9

X-RAYS

PIONEER WORKERS

EQUIPMENT DURING WAR

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "The.Evening Post.")

DUNEDIN, This Day. The X : ray formed the subject of an address by Dr. S. S. Argylle (Minister of Health in Victoria) at the Medical Congress yesterday. He said that it was about thirty-one years since Rontgen had discovered X-rays, and during the course of twenty-two years he (Dr. Argylle) had practised the application of that science to medicine and surgery. Freund (Vienna) had carried out experiments on himself in connection with the naevus or birthmark. He gave, daily exposures of two hours for ten successive, days, though the actual amount of radiation delivered was not known. No ill effects followed. Later on he increased the exposure in another patient to forty-two hours, and succeeded in producing an X-ray burn which developed in the course of two jnonths. This was the beginning of the use of X-rays for the treatment of disease. During the following years various skin .affections were treatedjin this way, including rodent ulcer, the least malignant of all cancers. About that time.it evident that a heavy penalty had to'be paid for this Pioneer,work., Almost ail the radiologistß received acute and chronic burns, and doctors, nurses, physicists, mechanics, and'a few patients died from the results of over exposure. Then followed the.period of X-ray protection. Dr. Argylle said .that he started his X-ray work about 1904. His. first patient was suffering from a cancer of tie breast, which had advanced beyond the stage of operation. He had used apparatus consisting of a 6in coil with a hammer interrupter energised by an 8-volt accumulator battery. The current in the primary circuit was four amperes. The tube was placed em away from the patient's skin. He had given exposures of five minutes' duration over a period of twelve months until fifty-two exposures had .been applied.- The patient had been greatly improved. The tumor diminished in size and a great reduction in the size of the arm, which was much swollen and. quite useless, took place. Later the patient had: been able to abandon the Pg &»d to use her arm. He had conjrased this treatment intermittently for a Anther five months, but in JanuSJTi MOS, he.,had been compelled to abandon the treatment. The patient |«d.died in May. Although the condijnon was hopeless from the first, it was teattofactory to know that she had suffered little or no pain during the year that had elapsed after the treatment had been started.

Dr. Argylle then described the various change* that had taken place as a result of the improvement in apparatus, accumulation of ■ knowledge, and the application of new methods. He pointed out that at the outbreak of war in 1914 the Army Medical Service had no definite X-ray organisation; they had no standard equipment and no definite policy as to the method to be .adopted under war conditions. The late General "Williams, who was'Direc-tor-General of Medical Services at the time of the beginning of the war, had sent him a copy of the British Army .X-ray equipment that had been used in .the South African War with'a request for a report as to its suitability for modern conditions.. Dr. Argylle said the iist was ridiculously out of date and ;quite useless. The Australian Red Cross and other patriotic bodies throughout Australasia had raised the necessary lunds and four standard equipments were sent out at an early date. The .fifth apparatus was fitted into a motorcar for use as a mobile unit when required. Unfortunately, owing to the inability of the medical staff to understand the usefulness of such a mobile unit close to the front line, the unit was never given a chance to prove its ■value.