12 Charles Russell Bardeen 



of this treatment. A large number of papers on the subject have 

 been reported. A list may be found in the paper of Warthin, men- 

 tioned above. While nearly all of the leukemic cases treated have 

 shown at first a marked improvement in the blood condition and 

 general symptoms, there is some doubt as to the possibility of a 

 permanent cure being brought about by irradiation w^ith the 

 Roentgen rays. Many of the earlier cases reported as cured have 

 since relapsed or died. Warthin studied tissues derived from three 

 patients who had been treated by X-ray irradiation for leukemia. 

 In one there was a picture of an aleukemic lymphocytoma or 

 lymphosarcoma with no lymphocytes in the vessels; in the 

 second the tissues presented the picture of a myeloid leukemia 

 without any changes attributable with certainty to the Roentgen 

 ray treatment; in the third the immediate effect of the treatment 

 was to cause in the diseased glands a fatty degeneration and 

 necrosis of the atypical cells forming the glands. This necrosis was 

 usually followed by an apparent sarcomatous infiltration of the 

 surrounding tissues. In the first and third cases renal lesions sug- 

 gested toxemia. The symptoms leading to death Warthin thinks 

 are due to an intoxication resulting from the disintegration of cell 

 proteid. 



The Roentgen rays have proved of more certain value in a num- 

 ber of other affections, especially in acne, rosacea, nevi, lupus vul- 

 garis, cutaneous carcinoma, and some other superficially placed 

 diseased conditions.®^ In some instances the benefit seems to be 

 due to a slight inflammatory reaction set up by the rays; in others 

 to the alterations produced in the tissues When the rays have 

 direct access to the tissues, diseased cells, especially the abnormal 

 cells which constitute carcinomata and sarcomata, may apparently 

 be destroyed by Roentgen or radium rays before permanent 

 injury is inflicted on the normal tissues. When filtered through 

 normal tissues the rays seem largely to lose an elective action on 

 the abnormal cells. ^ 



'^See Pusey, Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1905. 



*^For a list of references to the literature on the action of the Roentgen rays on tumors, see Warthin 

 International Clinics, 1906. On the action of radium irradiation on tumors, see H. Rieder, Verhand- 

 lung der Gesellschaft deutschen Naturforscher und Aerzte, 1903, p. 278; H. Apolant, Deutsche med. 

 Wochenschrift, xsx, s. 554, 1126, 1904; and Neuberg, Zietschr. f . Krebsforschnung, ii, s. 171, 1904. 



