524 



NA TURE 



[April 2, 1896 



definition in any part of Ihe skeleton, is a more powerful source 

 of X-rays ; in other words, a step further in the preparation of 

 Crookes' tubes. Even now the shadows obtained are good 

 enough for many surgical purposes." 



One of the most important, discoveries in the new field of in- 

 vestigation is that certain phosphorescent substances emit rays 

 capable of penetrating opaque materials and producing photo- 

 graphic effects. M. Henri Becquerel's experiments in con- 

 nection with this matter have formed the subject of several 

 valuable communications to the Paris Academy of Sciences, and 

 have been referred to in our abstracts of the Coinptes rendus, as 

 well as in a brief note. We propose to give a full account of 

 his work in a subsequent number of Nature. 



Mr. A. .Hutchinson has sent us, under date March 23, the 

 following account of experiments carried out by him in the 

 Mineralogical Museum, Cambridge : — 



" During the past few weeks I have found that quite a number 

 of inorganic substances fluoresce when exposed to the action of 

 the Rdntgen rays ; thus the following minerals all become more 

 or less luminous, viz. diamond fluor-spar, apatite, autunite, 

 scheelite, and a number of lead compounds, including cerussite, 

 matlockite, anglesite, lanartrite, phosgenite ; also lead chloride, 

 lead iodide, lead glass, uranium nitrate and uranium glass. 

 The fluorescence produced in most of these substances is very 

 weak, but autunite, uranium nitrate and uranium glass, cerrus- 

 site, some specimens of fluor spar, and some diamonds become 

 fairly bright. The most effective substance which I have so far 

 examined is, however, scheelite, the native tungstate of calcium. 

 Colourless crystals of this mineral phosphoresce brilliantly under 

 the action of the X-rays, the glow continuing for some seconds 

 after the current is switched oft", and when powdered they afford 

 a screen which is at least as bright, if not brighter, than one 

 prepared with barium platinum cyanide. It seems very possible 

 that this substance may be ' the properly-crystallised ' calcium 

 tungstate of Edison's telegram, quoted in Nature of March 19. 

 " It is, perhaps, interesting to note also that uranium nitrate, 

 uranium glass, and the minerals autunite and torbernite are all 

 capable of producing the remarkable effects discovered by M. 

 Becquerel. Thus I have found that the radiations given out by 

 uranium nitrate, when exposed to daylight, in an ordinary room 

 are capable in twenty-four hours of penetrating sheets of 

 aluminium 0*5 mm. thick, and I have obtained a shadow photo- 

 graph of a coin by placing it on a plate, thoroughly protected 

 from sunlight by light-tight envelopes, and covering it 

 with a slab of uranium glass. This arrangement was allowed 

 to stand near a window for a day ; on developing the plate a 

 distinct outline of the coin was found." 



A decided step in advance in the application of Rontgen 

 photography to medical science is marked by illustrations in the 

 current issues of the British Medical Journal and the Lancet. 

 The former journal contains a striking double-page plate of the 

 skeleton of an infant, reproduced from a photograph by Mr. 

 Sydney Rowland, and demonstrates at once the ability to 

 portray the deep visceral region of the body by means of 

 Rontgen rays. Mr. Rowland remarks that although no disease 

 was present in the body of the child, the picture is none the less 

 interesting from a scientific and medical point of view as being 

 the first step towards the application of the method to the 

 diagnosis of spinal and other deep affections. The photograph 

 was obtained in fourteen minutes, and the age of the child was 

 three months. The tube employed was the new focus tube, and 

 it was placed some eight inches from the surface of the body so 

 as to obtain sufficient spreading to cover the plate. It is pointed 

 out that the positions of some of the soft organs are indicated 

 on the picture ; thus the heart and lungs are clearly silhouetted, 

 and curiously enough the coils of intestine ; while a clear 

 space above them exhibits the place occupied by the stomach. 

 A striking feature is that only the ossified portions of the bones 

 in the arm and hand produce definite shadows, the undeveloped 

 parts of the bones being but faintly visible. 



The Lancet referred in the issue of March 21 to a photograph 

 obtained through the body of a dead monkey, into whose kidney 

 a biliary and uric acid calculus had been previously inserted. 

 The current issue contains a plate reproduced from this photo- 

 graph, and showing the spinal column and ribs with great clear- 

 ness. The biliary calculus can hardly be distinguished from the 

 kidney substance, but the uric acid calculus shows very clearly. 

 The kidney itself is almost transparent to the rays, though not 

 absolutely so. 



In a letter communicated to the Electrician, Prof. G. M. 

 Minchin gives a summary of the conclusions to which he has 

 NO. 1379, VOL. 53] 



been led with reference to the discharge of electrified bodies 

 by the X-rays. The generally accepted opinion is that the 

 X-rays discharge negative electricity from all bodies with <Treal 

 rapidity, and positive more slowly, leaving every body finally 

 with a positive charge. Prof. Minchin, however, finds that 

 " the X-rays charge some bodies positively and some negatively, 

 and whatever charge a body may receive by other means, the 

 X-rays charge it, both in magnitude and sign, to the charge 

 which they independently give to the body." While gold, 

 silver, copper, platinum and iron are all charged positively by 

 the X-radiation, sodium, magnesium, tin, lead and zinc are 

 charged negatively, the efi'ect being in the case of some of these 

 metals much more marked than in the case of the metals that 

 become positively charged. Antimony appears to be almost 

 neutral. Prof. Minchin considers that these observations tend 

 to support the view that the X-rays are undulatory in character, 

 and not of the nature of kathode rays. 



Prof. Oliver Lodge writes to the Times : — " It may be worth 

 just putting on record that during the past week I have seen 

 fluorescence excited by Rontgen rays after they had penetrated 

 the bodies of two men standing one behind the other in their 

 clothes. Also, that we have succeeding in radiographing the 

 details of a damaged vertebra in the spine of an adult patient 

 at the Northern Hospital, Liverpool, with an exposure of half 

 an hour; and have found a ' Murphy-button' in the intestine 

 of another adult at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary with an ex- 

 posure of ten minutes. A ' focus-tube ' and a powerful ordinary 

 induction coil were the means used." 



Six good photographic reproductions accompany an article 

 on Rontgen photography contributed by Mr. J. W, Giffbrd to 

 Knowledge. One of the pictures of a mouse, and another of a 

 sparrow, obtained on February 28, clearly locate the internal 

 organs. 



Finally, a number of important papers are referred to in the 

 abstract of the Comptes rendus which appears in another column. 



REPORT ON THE .USE OF ANTITOXIN IN 

 DIPHTHERIA. 



A DETAILED report on the use of antitoxic serum in 

 ■^^ diphtheria, at the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums 

 Board, has just been issued. It exhibits the results obtainedjduring 

 the year 1895 i" ^^^ '^he six hospitals in which cases of diphtheria 

 were treated, and is a most valuable testimony to the efficacy of 

 the new treatment. From the summary of the report given in 

 the Times we derive the subjoined general statistical results and 

 conclusions. 



Antitoxin was administered in rather more than three-fifths 

 of the total number of cases admitted into the hospitals, and 

 those for the most part representing the severer types of disease. 

 The value of results obtained will be seen by taking the whole 

 of the figures for 1895 and contrasting them with those of 1894, 

 or rather with the first ten months of that year, previous to the 

 introduction of antitoxin. This gives the following results : 



Mortality 



per cent. 



29*6 



22*5 



Deaths. 



1894 ... 3042 ... 902 



1895 ... 3529 ... 796 

 The reduction in mortality of 7*1 per cent, below that of 



1894 — the lowest previously recorded in any year — must be 

 fairly attributed to antitoxin, because nothing else was changed 

 in the treatment ; the average severity of the disease was about 

 equal in the two years, and the proportion of juvenile, that is 

 unfavourable, patients was somewhat larger in 1895 than in 

 1894. It may be added that diphtheria in both years alike 

 means diphtheria as clinically, not bacteriologically, diagnosed. 

 The essential conditions, therefore, were the same in the two 

 periods. Had antitoxin been used in all cases in 1895, instead 

 of in three-fifths only, the comparison would have been more 

 symmetrical, but the numbers are sufficiently large to make it 

 quite valid ; and in this connection it is worth noting that those 

 individual hospitals which made least use of the drug show the 

 highest rate of mortality and the smallest reduction on their 

 previous records. The broad conclusion reached is that in the 

 year 1895 antitoxin saved 250 lives in London. 



A complete examination and discussion of the statistics, leads 

 to the following conclusions : — 



The improved results in the diphtheria cases treated during 

 the year 1895, which are indicated by the foregoing statistics 

 and clinical observations, are : — 



