DEVELOPMENT IN NINETEENTH CENTURY 321 



radium pass through the body. Radium gives off heat and a gas 

 called helium, but these properties have no influence in the thera- 

 peutic action of radium. Radium destroys bacteria and affects the 

 metabolism of cells and is used in the treatment of certain skin 

 affections, notably lupus, keloid, nevi, rodent ulcer, epithelioma, 

 carcinoma, and sarcoma. The action is similar to the Rontgen rays, 

 but the chief advantage of radium consists in a precise estimate of 

 the dosage, while the Rontgen ray, on the other hand, is a more 

 powerful energy, but it is difficult to estimate its exact strength. 



Electricity has had great influence in the development of surgery 

 during the past century. It has been employed in many ways, both 

 as a diagnostic aid and as a means of cure. The electric light is used 

 as a means of diagnosis to explore the hidden parts of the body such 

 as the throat, larynx, esophagus, and stomach, also the bladder and 

 the intestinal canal. Perhaps one of the most useful purposes to 

 which electricity has been employed in a diagnostic way is illustated 

 by the cystoscope by means of which the interior of the bladder can 

 be explored with a view of determining the exact nature of the lesion, 

 the shape and anatomic relations of a growth, or the presence of a 

 foreign body in the hollow and heretofore impenetrable viscus. The 

 stomach also has been explored with a view to determine the nature 

 of the lesion. It is also used to test the contractility of muscles which 

 should respond quickly to the faradic current if the nerve is diseased. 

 In this way the surgeon can diagnosticate functional or organic 

 disease of the nerve by the behavior of the muscles when the electric 

 current is applied. The electric current is used in surgery as a cura- 

 tive means in the removal of small malignant growths and nevi, to 

 arrest primary hemorrhage in places when the ligature is inapplicable, 

 or secondary hemorrhage where compression is not admissible. In 

 the form of an ecraseur, electricity is used to remove pedunculated 

 tumors, to cauterize long sinuses, to arrest suppuration in the eye- 

 ball, to sterilize the pedicle after appendectomy, ovariotomy, or 

 hysterectomy, to cause coagulation of blood in the treatment of 

 aneurism, to overcome obstruction in the eustachian tube, to find 

 bullets imbedded in the human body, by a probe which was invented 

 bv Girdner of New York, to stimulate muscles and nerves, to im- 



J 



prove the circulation of the blood, and even to relieve severe pain. 

 Serum therapy is a newly discovered method for the treatment 'of 

 certain surgical diseases, among which may be mentioned hydro- 

 phobia, tetanus, acute phlegmonous inflammations, anthrax, and 

 other infectious processes. The history and development of surgery 

 during the last quarter of a century would be incomplete without 

 a reference to the inoculation method to prevent certain surgical 

 diseases. The principle involved in this system is the one enunciated 

 by Pasteur, to whom the world owes an everlasting debt of gratitude. 



