AID TO MEDICINE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 148, 19 December 1929, Page 29

AID TO MEDICINE

FILMING OPERATIONS

MOViE CAMERA

X. TESTS IN AMERICA

Copyright.

,; Dr. Joseph Franklin Montague, •of iihe Bcllevue Hospital Medical College JOlinic of "New York, has perfected an internal operating motion picture ;eamera. This. has been the result of iten years-of-work. Ho is now using it ifc his study of disease and the teaching of young medicos.

',', Dr. Montague; first began using'the" Moving picture to demonstrate to his ftudents a few of the most intricate yarts in certain operations, and exact characteristics of ■ some of the rarer diseases. So successful was the method, however^-that he was called upon to .give an entire; course in surgery through the medium of the movies, and later his moving pictures of various operations for the, diagnosis came into dernarjd ■With both medical schools and private physicians,; not only in the United .States; bnt- from Europe, and even faroff Australia and India.

■ ; "Moving picture films form a particular Ideal medium for the instruction of the medical student," explained Dr. Montague at the . Clinic of the Be'Hevue Hospital . Medical School. •'This is not hard to realise when, the and simplicity of the motion picture portrayal of a clinical condition is contrasted to the totally inadequate view that a medical student can obtain when, he attempts to observe an operation, or study a case from a seat in the ampitheatre.

i:: "If-you have ever been in the anipijtheatro of an operating room, you will jecall how the students and observing physicians are seated row npon row in a : semi-circular manner on benches jwhose distance range from twenty to fifty feet from the field under observation. When you consider that the fcection to be observed is at best six to eight inches square, and that even this is encroached upon by operating hands end instruments, ,you can well imagine that the actual view possible is very tpor indeed."

VSIX BY NINE TOOT OPERATION. |f;" "Contrast this, if you ..-will, to the fact that, an:operation when photographed and,thrown upon, the screen, shows an area sis by nine feet instantly visible to everybody, and so complete in its clearness and, abundant in its detail that accurate observation cannot be avoided, ij "The dissection of an entire human Ibodyr—a tedious process taking months pi careful work—is shown in faithful detail in. motion pictures that can be tun through in a little over an. hour, ijfcloreover, without the necessity of ■gain going through the dissection, the process may be repeatedly shown until the-student is entirely familiar with its detail. In tiiis way, from tho seat tif a comfortable chair, he may learn \yftat otherwise would require months of messy 'work on a malodorous corpse. Thus through the agency of motion pictures, the anatomy and physiology ot the body,in health, the characteristic appearance of «ases of disease, and each 6sep in the plan of its treatment may be presented to students.

i '"P!ia_same facts hold good in practically: .every other medical course be-eves-surgery. < Moving pictures are Solving, the teaching problems. In Microscopic work, .for instance, which glays so large a part in the training o£ the -medical students, a movie (Smera can catch everything that tho tsudent can see after hours ■of eye strain poring.over his microscopic slides. image,- wJjen vastly magnified and thrown up on a screen, is then far more ■oisible and easily understood by the Wuclent. Strains and colours can be i£ed to emphasise the points to bo made aßd proper titling ancl even captions sot into the pictures directing attention to various points will illustrate a fact far better than individual work between an instructor and a student gapping squints into an unsatisf actoryfflficroscope." ' ;;;The instrument that Dr. Montague P9C\ movies insido ■ the

humand body consists of a long, vory thin, and very highly polished tube. To one end of the tube a small movie camera can be fastened. Inside of the ot.her_end.of the. tube is a battery of minute but very powerful lights, arranged . according to. certain optical laws. The end of the tube with the lightsis introduced inside the patient's body, and when properly placed the lights,are turned on. The movie camera is then focussed, started, and in a few seconds a celluloid record is made of how some particular organ is functioning. The entire operation is perfectly painless, and no more dangerous than when the doctor uses a stomach pump.

CAUSE AND EFFECT.

After the moving picture film has been developed and projected on a screen, the doctor is able to study it at his leisure, and decide exactly what is wrong. "If he is doubtful, a specialist can be called in for consultation. A diagnosis is decided on, and perhaps treatment starts. A few weeks later another-movie." 13 made which will show vrhat." effect- the treatment is having. When the patient is finally cured, a' movie- will prove the fact, and the complete set of three movies will be I of. invaluable., use to other doctors, who may have a patient with a similar disease, and who wish to see just what the symptoms are, and how they respond to that particular typo of treatment. . , ■•'■■"

'The doctors, however, are not alone in having adopted the lively films. The dentists'also are taking up the camera as an aid. to their work. While the X-ray .camera has for years been the right-hand instrument of the dentists. in the last year the movie camera has also crept into popularity.

MOVIES OF THE VOCAL CORDS.

While. . .-. English scientists and physicians are watching Dr. Montague's work with the closest attention, and doing a certain amount vi research work in the development ttf movies in medicine, most of their progress has been made, with the X-ray. A now moving picture camera lias boen perfected that will take X-ray movies, and recently doctors in London witnessed a complete film of the workings of the inside of the human body as exposed by the X-ray and registered with a movie camera. The heart could be seen pulsating in a trellis work frame formed by the libs, while the1 movements of the joints of the arms and legs could be followed so closely that the doctors were able to diagnose functional disorders of the joints of the bones. In London, the work is also being carried on of taking regular pictures of the inside of the body. These experiments differ, however, from the method employed by Dr. Montague and other American scientists. The British medicial men,, instead of actually inserting the lights and taking the pictures inside the body, shine a strong beam of electric light into the body from the Outside, which is brought to a-focus at the desired point. A movie camera is then ' directed down. a patient's- throat, and in this way movies have been made of the vocal chords in .the throat, and the curious changes that take place during breathing. ,

Some time ago a series of eight or ten films showing the. Caesarian operation, trepanning, and the removal of tumours, etc., were taken in .France.