X-RAY HORRORS

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 54

X-RAY HORRORS

DEATHS AND TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS. . ; (Fbom Oub Own Cobbespondent.) ; LONDON, October 29. | The London papers have at last become i aware of the fact that the Rontgen or " X" rays which have been employed for the cure of external cancer have induced in tho operators a terrible and sometimes fatal disease closely resembling the cancer that was sought fco be cured, if, indeed, it be not cancer itself. This is a somewhat belated discovery on the part of the British press, seeing that you published in your columns two years ago full particulars obtained and sent by me of this new horror. I. then mentioned that many London operators with the X-rays had been seized with a new and terrible dSsease closely ' resembling cancer, which was directly due to the impinging of the rays upon their skin, and which had in at least two pases caused the death of the sufferer. Having tardily awakened to the existence of this new affliction of humanity, the London papers are endeavouring to make up for lost time by publishing and 1 illustrating the most horrifying and loathsome details. In this course I shall not follow them, but I deem it imperative to furnish the latest authentic information on this very grave subject. I may say in limine that the exact effect of the X-rays on the unprotected skin is what is known technij cally as ""dermatitis, 7 a destructive inflamI mation of the " derma " or " true skin " which clothes the flesh, and which is covered ' externally by the "cuticle" or outside skin. The results are horrible beyond description J — equalling in appearance the worst spectacles produced by cancer or leprosy, and being attended by constant pain of the most acute and agonising character. It was at first hoped and believed by the 1 numerous operators who found themselves j thus attacked that the dermatitis would I prove transitory an£ readily curable. Unhappily, experience has conclusively demonstrated the fallacy of this idea. Those who | have once contracted tho affliction grow worse and worse until they linger in life ' only to endure the most frightful agony and .' j to present an aspect of unimaginable loathLsomeness. So far the disease, onoe contracted, appears to be absolutely incurable. There has been muc-i reluctance, perhaps not unnatural, on the part of the medical profession, to admit how formidable a fresh horror has ensued through the .attempts from which so much was hoped, to cure- ,' one form of a disease recognised as the , direst sco.urge of humanity. Even now the ' British Medical Journal expresses regret «that the lay press should have seen fit to publish " sensational statements " before " alleged fa eta. can be examined in a calm and philosophical way." At tihe same time, it confesses that th© X-rays may lead to complications when applied without due) | supervision and a full knowledge of the diseased condition whiob is imd«r treatment. "In this way,*' says ihe British Medica.l Journal, " burns have been * produced, giving risd sometimes to uleeratiou of an ex- ' oeedlngjy obstinate and special type, pecu- j liarly irresponsive to the usual methods of treatment.' 7 It freely admits also that it has been found necessary to direct the j attention of X-rays operators and radio* ' graphers themselves to the* "morbid oondi* tions, especially of the hands," which are likely to follow " slight troubles " if preoatij ii°oS *t$ disregards.^ A| to th§ ayefition of

cancer in relationship to the use of the new therapeutic agent, the British Medical Journal says: — "There is no doubt that tihe warty and corn-like growths (keratoses) which form about the affected parts, as a result of the ohronio dermatitis and of continuod exposure to the X-rays, may develop into epithelioma. It is certainly stated that skin cancer, necessitating amputation, supervened in the case of a medical radiographer, now deceased. As to Mr Edison's late- assistant, there is not a priori reason for doubting the possibility of cancer having developed in his case, and having led to the necssity for amputation." The same journal admits that the "sensational paragraphs" of which it complains will do some good " if they call the attention of those engaged in X-ray work to a real danger to themselves, for there is not the slightest doubt about the agony experienced by those suffering from chronic X-rays dermatitis at a certain stage of tht> disease." and " may also, for a time ufc least, siu've to warn the public against r submitting to X-ray treatment except under direct medical supervision." At a rcocnt mt:eting*of tho Dermatological Society of London Dr H. Radcliffe-Groc-ker showed a patient who had suffered from lupus prtthematosus of both sides of the fotx3 for some years, and who had been treated by means of the X-ray 3 and highfrequency current with a high vacuum electrode. This treatment was not carried out under Dr Radcliffe-Crockeu's instructions, and tho case was shown to bring out the fact that severe " burns " cou'd be caused by the high-frequency apparatus, though it was considered by most people to be free from risk. The side of the face that had been treated by the X-rays had : never reacted, but a great deal of inflam- ] mation had been produced on the other | side, which had been exposed to the high- ] frequency current. One press representative writes: "I have ' been spending a gruesome day among some of the victims of the new disease — a disease ; which has sorely gripped the doctors and j -their assistants, who have been in the habit of working the X-rays in our great London ! hospitals. There are various terms for it; the doctors themselves call it chronic X- ! ray dermatitis. It has also been described as a disease of a cancerous nature ; and it is caused by continual exposure of the skin to the X-rays. In the primary stage of the disease there is considerable irritation on the back of the hand. Ugly-looking ulcers form the secondary stage, and then this mysterious complaint creeps up the arm to the chest, where more ■ cores are formed. , "It was at this stage that Dr Blacker, of St. Thomas's Hospital, recently died — after suffering awful agony for many months. No treatment has yet been discovered which alleviates the pain or disperses the ulcers, although everything, from the high-frequency current to mercurial ointment, has been tried. Some of the sufferers — and medical men, too — have actually been treating themselves with quack nostrums in the vain hope that some relief may be obtained. My inquiries brought out thefact that nearly all hospital doctors and their ' mechanicten?.' who began X-ray work soon after the publication of Professor Rontgen's paper about • eight years ago, are down with this disease. For months none of them thought anything of it. Some treated thcmselves-^some did not. But now it is no exaggeration to say that there is almost a panio among the unhappy victims, who find that they are gradually totting worse, in spite of the fact that thay have kept « ut of the deadiv sweep of the I rays as much as possible. I " One famous doctor (whose name lam ! asked not to publish) is very ill. He was I an early experimenter with the Rontgen rays. One day, in a simple operation upon a lady patient under the rays, h& stripped off his gauntlets and worked with his bare hand under the blaze. A few days later a curious numbness at the finger-tips gave 1 him a shock; he thought that was a. preliminary symptom of general paralysis. Presently an ulcer formed at his finger-tip, and night after night he sat •up and watched it grow with keen and wondering interest. He could not sleep for the pain. Then more ulcers came. He- had his finger amputated— first at the middle joint, and' then at the knuckle. To-day this horrible skin disease — ' inoculated cancer.' some call it — has spread to his body, and his condition is grave." i Operators at Guy's, St. Thomas, Kind's College, the Middlesex Hospital, and the London Hospital are all suffering in a greater or lesser degree from the same subtle poisoning. Dr Hall Edwards, of the } Birmingham Hospital, has an article in the British flledical Journal on the subject. He himself is a victim, and he says that the disease is "one of the most persistent, painful, and disfiguring maladies it has been niy misfortune to meet, and although, in the light of our present knowledge, it is avoidable, there appears little or no hope for those who have contracted it." Dr Pitkin, another sufferer, says that no language, sacred or profane, is adequate for a descrip- j tion of th© suffering he has endured. j It appears that even the makers of Xrays apparatus have been attacked by this j dermatitis. One of them showed his left hand to a press representative, who says "it was lik© a leper's!" "For a couple of years," the sufferer sadd, " I have carefully kept out of th© way of the rays, j But I don't seem to be any better. My chest is attacked as well as my hands. One I of my assistants is as bad as I am." An- ! other manufacturer and his assistant are in | a similar plight: the hand of the latter is described as being "so disfigured and so horrible-looking that he is actuallyproud of it— being a scientific inquirer." He explained that the hands of his chief were | " about th* same," and had been like that for several years! "I began making Xrays "apparatus in 1896," he said; "I was constantly exposing my hands to the rays, and in four months very primary symptoms began to develop. Irritation and a certain numbness began it. Then one day I lightly knocked the back of my hand against a chair m the office, and, to my great astonishment an ulcer began to form straight away! Then I lost the sense of touch; passing my hand over the very roughest material felt an if I weve stroking velvet.' latest victims to the disease are the eisters in the- hospitals who assist at operations and experiments under the rays. The patients need have no fear. Their exposures to the rate of 10 minutes three times & day will bring no evil results. It is only those who work in turn eight hours a day who contract this new and terribly painful disease. It fis alleged"— as I mentioned in my original statements on the- subject that gloves pf lead ov-even of indiarubber afford iwoteotion to the operators, but are found so inconvenient anj[ hampering tbat they

An important pronouncement on this phase of the matter was made yesterday by Professor Edward Sehiff, the great Vienna specialist in radiography and radio-therapy, who was the first to make use of X-rays as a therapeutic, and who recognises the deadly properties of the- rays. But he maintains that all danger may _be averted by tho exercise of proper caution on the part of the operator. He asserts that since 1895 thousands of cases had passed through his hands, but not a single serious accident had happened to himself, his assistants, or his patients. "In 1897," says the Professor, " I called attention to the absolute necessity of protecting with lead those parts of th© patient's body which are not to come under treatment. The examination of the quality of the tube may be connected without danger if the operator, instead of using his own hand, can use a bone or the hand of a skeleton. I fully endorse the opinion of Dr Hall Edwards that there is little hope for those who contract this dermatitis, but I insist that it is avoidable. No special treatment has yet been discovered for this painful disease, which is a chronic inflamj mation of a very malignant nature. Its characteristic feature appears to be of a kind of paralysis of the blood-vessels, ancl therein hes the great difficulty in treating it. But I am absolutely convinced that the malady has nothing whatever to do with cancer."