THE RONTGEN SOCIETY.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 589, 31 December 1897, Page 4

THE RONTGEN SOCIETY.

The Effects of “ X ” Rays.

At the inaugurated meeting of the ri eeiitly con ituted Itontgen Society, In ill at hi Martin’s 't own Hall, Loudon, Pi of. sir By Kami; I*. Thompson delivered bis presidential ahdre.. before a very large audience. After giving an account of the eircum lane. , ni which Professor itoutgcii made h - famoo. discovery nearly two years ago, and referring t i the antecedent invc. ligators of w h0..0 work that discovery was u di vclopiiicnt, Professor Thompson pion mI iI to make a brief review of whal.bu been achieved with respect to \ radiations, lie first discussed tin improvements which have been ma'li in appliances, such us in ti construction of the tubes, in ' materials used for fluorescent screi .. , in pliutographic plates, and in iho mi thuds ot exciting the tubes. Turning tu advances in results uitained, and to applications of the d every, In- .ml that,excepting only Ln tel ;, introduction of antiseptics and the eiscoverv of antiseptics, no th. mvi ry in the pro.-nut century had done so much for operative surgery u • that ot the liontgen rays. The first great application of the rays hud h n to the diagnosis of dislocations and Uacturcb, the study of bone

disease and the detection of foreign bodies in various parts of the human frame. Coins in the larnyx, shots and needles in the hand, and bullets in the brain had ail been seen, skiagrapbed and localised; even the progress of tubercular disoase in the lungs had been rendered evident, and to watch the motions of the living heart was now an every-day experience. The localisation of foreign bodies embedded in more transparent tissue had claimed the attention of maDy surgeons. In this department Mr MacKenzie Davidson had devised an ingenious apparatus by which any intelligent person could at once localise to 100th of an inch, say, of a needle in the hand or foot, the complicated geometry of oblique projection being simplified down by the application of callipers and a divided scale. The Rontgen rays had also brought new and bewildering problems to the medical practitioner. Soon after the invention of focus Lubes had furnished powerful sources of the rays, it was noticed that exposure to them frequently resulted in severe local inflammation, accompanied in some cases with destruction —at least temporary —of the hair, which fell out and left bald patches. It was disputed whether this effect was direct, like sunburn, or whether it was indirect, and due to the chemical action of ozone generated by the ionizing of the oxygen in the air, or finally, whether it was electrical. The existence of this singular effect hail given rise to the suggestion that the Rontgen rays might possibly be found to have some useful pathological application for the treatment of such diseases as leprosy and even tuberculoses. If it were possible that they should have any direct effect of nerve-stimulation, the door would be opened to the hope that by their aid sight might in some cases be artificially given to cure the blind. This bad been already investigated in a number of instances, but hitherto with no real success. Professor Braudes, however, had found, and Professor Rontgen bad confirmed the result, that in certain circumstances the retina of the normal eye did pesscss a faint perception for the rays. As regards the physical problems presented by tlie rays, while there was much progress to chronicle there was also a vast prospect opening out of problems awaiting solution. Many speculations had been put forward as to the physical nature of the rays themselves. Croobes, Tesla and others held them to consist of dight of minute atoms or hyperatuins ; on the other, there was a hypothesis that they were merely an extreme sort of ultra-violet light, consisting of transverse waves of excessively minute wave-length. Jaumann and, apparently, Rontgen regarded them as due to longtitndinal vibrations while Sir George Stokes had put forward the view that they might be transverse waves, not in regular trains, but consisting of innumerable solitary waves. Another wide field of research was opened up by the discovery of other analogous lands of rays. That the salts of uranium, glow worms, firetllcs and sticks of phosphorus should be able wiihout any electrical stimu* lation to give out rays that could produce photographic action through substances that were opaque to every known kind of light was very suggestive, but such rays were not Rontgen ray s and obeyed different laws. Jii the hall a splendid assortment of photographs was exhibited, perhaps the most striking being a lifesized skiagram of the entire skeleton of a full gjowii living woman, taken by Dr W. J. Morton, of New York.