Septemhkk IO. I 896] 



A\rl TURE 



451 



AP PLICA TION OF RONTGEN RA YS TO THE 

 SOFT TISSUES OF THE BOD V. 



VVTUV.'S the photographs which accompanied Prof. Rontgen's 

 original paper were reproduced, the question was frequently 

 asked, Shall we ever be able to photograph every part of the 

 human skeleton ? The developmenls have been very rapid, and 

 now that it has been demonstrated that we can practically 

 photograph the whole human skeleton in life, and throw 

 shadows of a great portion of it upon fluorescent screens, we 

 wonder the question was ever raised. It was quite natural that 

 a .similar demand should spring up for 

 further extension of the art, so that other 

 tissues than the osseous might be revealed 

 by the same methods. Like many other 

 observers, I early satisfied myself that we 

 ■could examine and photograph certain 

 organs within the cavities of some of the 

 lower animals, such as the frog, rabbit, 

 fish, &C. Further, in a considerable num- 

 ber of photographs of the deeper-seated 

 structures, faint shadows of the human 

 body were now and then obtained indi- 

 cating the position of certain muscles, 

 fasci.v, and even organs like the heart 

 itself. While experimenting, like others, 

 with the object of overcoming the difficul- 

 ties of |ihotographing the skeleton, I made 

 a series of observations with a view lu 

 testing how far it would be possible to 

 obtain photographs, or shadows upon 

 fluorescent screens, of the contents of the 

 three great cavities of the human body as 

 well as the surrounding osseous walls. 

 ijo far the.se experiments indicate promise 

 of future development, and a few photo- 

 graphs are here reproduced, more by way 

 of showing what may yet be accomplished 

 than as an evidence of what has already 

 been done. 



In placing the following statements 

 before the readers of N.^TURE, I desire to 

 emphasise the importance of combining 

 the study of the physical with the ])urely 

 medical aspect of the que.stion. To begin 

 with, whatever progress may in the future 

 1)6 made with Rontgen rays, it must In 

 remembered that the discovery itself cann 

 from the physical laboratory. Naturallj , 

 in the advancement of the study, certain 

 aspects of the question will be more easily 

 <ivercome by those familiar with normal 

 and pathological tissues ; others will just 

 as naturally fall to be investigated by those 

 engaged in physical research. Of course 

 no line of demarcation can ever be drawn 

 between these two, and the physician or 

 .•-urgeon who desires to pursue the subject 

 must to a certain extent be conversant 

 with physical science. On the other hand, 

 the physicist will require to make himself 

 somewhat familiar with the needs of those 

 engaged in the study of animal and vege- 

 table tissues. In this paper, therefore, 

 while demonstrating .some of the earliest 

 examples obtained in this newer branch of 

 the an, I desire to point out wherein we 

 need the aid of those engaged in the 

 {physical laboratory. In so doing, I shall 

 refer for the most part to the examination 



of the soft tissues of the human body, although it must never 

 be forgotten that the use of Rontgen rays is not limited to 

 any one part of the animal kingdom, and, further, that the 

 structures in the vegetable kingdom are also being investigated 

 by its means. 



In attempting to photograph the soft tissues of the body, it 

 might be thought they offered so little obstriiction to the passage 

 of Rontgen rays as compared with the bones, that less force 

 would be required to demonstrate their jjresence. In other 

 words, the natural suggestion was that if the bones of the 



NO. 1402, VOL. 54] 



extremities were to be photographed with certain apparatus in 

 a given time, by diininishing the exposure we might be able 

 to catch the soft tissues before they disappeared. This, of 

 course, is true to a certain extent, and, in a certain number of my 

 experiments, I was able, by carefully judging the exposure, to 

 photograph not only the bones themselves in disease, but the 

 fleshy parts, and this with such accuracy that the surgeon could 

 see the internal pathological change and the external configura- 

 tion of the part as well on the same plate. But when it came 

 to the examination of the organs of the body, it was found that 

 the rule did not apply as might have been expected, and instead 



Fig. I.— Pelvis of lad with femor.i, S:c. 



of a less force it became evident that we would require more 

 force. For example, in one successful attempt to photograph 

 the lungs of the frog, I was able to demonstrate their presence 

 and a deposit in one of the lobes of the right side, and this with 

 an ordinary Paget plate, the exposure only being something like 

 the time represented to give twenty successive flashes of the tube 

 due to twenty interruptions of a mercury interrupter with a 

 current registering ten volts and ten amperes across the terminals, 

 the spark being about six inches, and the focus tube one of 

 Xewton's small earliest pattern. In this case, however, the 



