An Inside View

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6747, 4 January 1932, Page 9

An Inside View

CAMERA TOR DOCTORS SWALLOWED IN TUBE AUCKLAND, Dec. 29. During his medical studies in Vienna Dr. C. Stanton Hicks, a New Zealand doctor, who is now professor of physiology] and pharmacology at tho University'of Adelaide, inspected a wonderful camera invented by two young Austrian scientists for photographing tho interior of the body. Tho apparatus is now in regular uso, and is of inimenso value in locating and diagnosing cancer of the stomach and internal ulcers. Professor Hicks, who is visiting relatives in the Dominion, explained prior to his departure for Dunedin that tho patient swallows the apparatus, and by means of an electric Hash of 200,000 candle-power no fewer than 10 stereoscopic photographs aro taken, each photograph being no larger than tho size of a piece of confetti. They are then enlarged to quarter-plate size, giving sharp definition and an excellent picture of the interior of the stomach wall.

It was at the Wenkebaeh clinic, in Vienna, that Professor Hicks saw tho invention in operation. The apparatus consisted, ho said, of a flexible tube carrying eight pairs of pinhole cameras. When the apparatus was swallowed an X-ray examination assured that tho cameras were in the right position. The stomach was then inflated until tho cameras were focussing accurately. "'When a small piece of metal wiro was exploded by means of an electrical discharge, giving a momentary flash, the miniature films were exposed simultaneously, and when developed supplied a complete view of the interior of the cavity. Tho efficiency of the apparatus was surprising, he said, and it was certain to become of great importance in the medical world.

After spending two and a half years on the Continent, Professor Hicks was chiefly impressed with the increasing numbers of men and women attending tho universities in times of depression. This was due, he said, to complete lack of faith in commerce and currency. Unable to find openings for their sons in business, fathers were putting them into professions, with the result that medicine was overcrowded in Europe, and tho prospects of a medical graduate finding a position were extremely small. The financial straits of tho Viennese wero pathetic, said Professor Hicks. Their poverty was unbelievable, and they viewed with astonishment tho apparent affluence of British and colonial students.

“When I told my fellow students four years ago that I was going to Australia and would bo back for clinical study in a few years they looked at mo in amazement,” ho said. “Ono of my professors shook his head and replied incredulously: ‘I think it more likely our next meeting will bo in heaven than in Vienna.’ Pour years elapsed, and I paid a return visit. I knocked at tho professor’s door, and when ho opened it ho looked profoundly astonished. Ach!’ ho gasped, ‘it is Vienna!’ ”