THE FRONTIERS OF MEDICINE 



So far as physical forces are concerned, it is now known 

 that the ultraviolet rays of the sun have the power to 

 produce within the body the vitamin D that may also be 

 derived from food or from irradiated ergosterol. It is known 

 that the X-ray has the power of inhibiting the growth of 

 tissues and indeed of disintegrating the living organism. 

 A ray has been developed which is, in every sense of the 

 word, a "death ray," with the power of killing at a 

 distance. By the power of the X-rays and the rays derived 

 from radium, severe changes are brought about in the 

 human body; and it seems likely that wild cells with unre- 

 strained growth, such as occur in cancer, may ultimately 

 be made amenable to the effects of such radiation. 



It is necessary to conceive of the human cells as being 

 constantly swayed by many forces. They are animated with 

 the life that comes to them through heredity, they are 

 modified by the kind of nutriment that is brought to them 

 by the blood, they are influenced by the action of minute 

 living organisms that are parasitic, and their entire nature 

 may be changed by the effects of light, heat, electricity, 

 and other forces. Wherever there are so many multiples 

 involved, the possibilities reach to infinity. 



Surgery. Sir Berkeley Moynihan emphasized recently his 

 belief that surgery had accomplished technically every- 

 thing that it might ever accomplish for mankind. He 

 failed, however, to realize the fact that the technic of the 

 surgeon may be vastly improved by the invention of new 

 devices for severing, uniting, or otherwise controlling 

 human tissue exactly as the senses of the internist have 

 been aided by audiometers, microscopes, and stethoscopes. 

 But even beyond the improvement of surgical technic by 

 such devices as the electric knife, the chromium suture, 

 and various types of dressing, is the development of a new 

 type of surgery that is preventive and physiologic rather 

 than mutilating and pathologic. Modern surgery seeks to 



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