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Title: X-ray, violet ray, and other rays
With their use in modern medicine
Author: Maynard Shipley
Release date: January 19, 2025 [eBook #75150]
Language: English
Original publication: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1926
Credits: Bob Taylor, Tim Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK X-RAY, VIOLET RAY, AND OTHER RAYS ***
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LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1050
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
X-Ray, Violet Ray
and Other Rays
With Their Use in Modern Medicine
Maynard Shipley
HALDEMAN-JULIUS COMPANY
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1926,
Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 4
Chapter I. Everyday Uses of X-Rays 5
Chapter II. Curative Value of X-Rays—X-Rays Cure Whooping
Cough—X-Rays for Malaria 18
Chapter III. Martyrs to Radiology 32
Chapter IV. Discovery and Nature of X-Rays 43
Chapter V. Ultra-Violet Light in Health and Disease—Sunlight
and Infantile Paralysis 48
INTRODUCTION
Highly important as are the phenomena of Radioactivity from the
physical, chemical, medical, and philosophic points of view, they
are hardly comparable in their relations to the affairs of our
everyday life to the Roentgen or X-rays, and to the invisible violet
or ultra-violet rays. The X-rays are utilized today in hundreds of
practical ways, and are vastly important also in surgery, medicine,
dentistry, and in biological investigations. It is perhaps not too much
to say that the discovery of the so-called X-rays should be numbered
among the two or three most important revelations of modern science.
This will be clearly demonstrated in the course of the chapters to
follow.
X-RAY, VIOLET RAY AND OTHER RAYS
CHAPTER I
EVERYDAY USES OF X-RAYS
To enumerate and describe all the practical uses of X-rays, apart from
medicine and scientific research in general, would require a good many
more pages than can be devoted to the subject here. To take a few cases
at random, without describing the instruments and methods employed:
radiography reveals flaws in the structure of iron and steel building
and bridge materials, and in the cylinders of airplane engines, and so
avoids accidents. In England a gasoline or petrol tank was shown to
have rivet heads on the outside and none on the inside.
Serious defects in the steel axles of railway and automobile “under
carriages” have been discovered by radiography. In one case, at least,
the axles had been drilled in the wrong position and the holes had been
simply filled with metal and covered over. An entire lot was rejected
in consequence and probably serious accidents were forestalled.
“Cracks in castings, bad welds and weak places which do not show on
the surface of metal are perfectly clear to the searching rays. How
much would you give to _know_ that that welded part in your automobile
is really solid and perfect, that it contains no flaw to break down
some day when you are twenty miles from a machine shop? A well-known
mechanical engineer said recently that in ten years a metallurgical
X-ray machine will be as vital a part of the equipment in an
automobile repair shop, a foundry, or machine shop as it is now in a
dentist’s office.”
We are assured by _The Iron Trade_ (73:26) that “the practice of
analyzing metals by means of X-rays is only in its infancy. There
is every reason to believe that soon great advances will be made in
determining the crystallization and therefore the properties of metals.
Students of metallurgy are well aware that the properties of metals
and other bodies depend on the nature of their crystallization. The
microscope has rendered valuable service largely because it enables
the form and arrangement of the crystalline grains to be studied. The
X-ray carries the same form of inquiry into a region 10,000 times more
minute, thereby furnishing new evidence as to crystalline structures,
so that it is now possible to see the atoms and the molecules, and
the way they form crystals. Every crystal has its characteristic
X-ray spectrum and can be identified thereby even when the individual
crystals are beyond the resolving power of the microscope and the
substance is in danger of being called amorphous. If a specimen
contains a mixture of crystalline substances, the spectrum shows the
combined effect of all the substances, and provided each individual
spectrum is known, the specimen can be analyzed.”
The X-rays are also used to determine the quality of the fabric in
automobile tires, and even to detect irregularities in the centers of
golf balls, and to reveal why some of them fly straighter and farther
than others.
“The professional detective, too,” says Mr. Wilfred S. Ogden (_Popular
Science Monthly_, August, 1923), “will find X-rays useful in his
business. Consider the detection of infernal machines, for example.
Two or three X-ray plates will tell an investigator just what is in a
suspicious-looking box. If it is a bomb the X-ray will show him how
to get it apart and render it harmless. Immediate detection of false
bottoms in trunks is child’s play with the X-ray. When the government
provided its customs inspectors with X-ray machines the gems which
smugglers try to hide in the linings of clothes or in hollow-handled
hairbrushes might as well be worn openly.
“The X-rays give us one of the easiest ways to detect the alteration
of checks and other documents. It is seldom that such an alteration is
made with exactly the same ink used on the original. Inks even of the
same color, differ in the way they affect the rays. In most cases all
that is necessary to detect an alteration is to place the suspected
document for a moment under the X-rays and make a photograph of it. The
new ink used in the alteration will stand out clearly as different from
the old.
“The industrial detective will find X-rays just as useful. The
adulteration of foods by sawdust, sand or clay; the adding of too much
filler to paper; the presence of grit in lubricating oil, all will be
revealed.
“Another use of the rays comes home to every cook and housewife. X-rays
constitute the only sure way to tell good eggs from bad. Pass each
egg in turn through the X-rays and let its shadow fall on a chemical
screen. You will see exactly what is inside each egg. The ones
containing hopeful chicks may be rejected.”
One of the most remarkable economic or biological uses of the X-ray
so far developed is the study of silk-worms and their diseases. The
Silk Association of America has established a laboratory—Department of
Sericulture—in the Canton Christian College, presided over by a staff
of Chinese and foreign entomologists. Here the silk-worm is X-rayed by
powerful microscopes, and all his disorders diagnosed and corrected,
says Mr. Philip A. Yountz (_Scientific American_, September, 1925).
“Numerous autopsies on deceased members of the silk-worm tribe revealed
that from 50 to 100 percent of the worms raised in South China were
infected with diseases that made the infant mortality rate excessively
high and destroyed the value of the silk from those hardy enough to
survive. The elimination of these diseases would enable South China to
produce four or five times as much silk.”
In Great Britain, X-rays are used in the analysis of coal, the method
being an adaptation of the X-ray stereoscope.
In Berlin, S. Nalken, a noted criminologist, has devised an important
improvement in finger-print identification. X-ray pictures are
obtained of the finger, with the muscles and bones. This is done
without the use of any chemicals that could obstruct the delicate
furrows of the finger lines. Moreover, the finger bone is shaped
so characteristically as to aid identification. Whenever a certain
likeness of finger-lines is discovered, the bones are examined to see
if further research is necessary.
Picture fakers have been dethroned by application of the X-ray to
paintings. Recently painted “old masters” are now easily detected.
Modern artists use white-lead, which is more opaque than the “priming”
or “sizing” used by the older artists; and the X-ray device “made in
Germany” in 1914 by Dr. Faber, and further developed by the French
expert, Dr. André Chéron, at once distinguishes the old from the new.
One picture by Van Ostade, of men drinking at a table, proved to be a
fraud when submitted to the X-ray; it had been painted over a study of
dead birds. Another, called “The Royal Child,” a supposed 16th century
work, now in the Louvre, was proved to have been painted during the
19th century over a picture of very much earlier date.
During a popular lecture on the X-ray in London, before the Royal
Institution, the distinguished physicist, Prof. G. W. C. Kaye, showed
a number of radiograph slides, among which were two pictures by Dutch
painters, one representing the Madonna and the other the Crucifixion.
In the former, the Madonna appeared to be looking at something which
was non-existent in the canvas, and a radiograph proved the missing
object was a child which some former owner of the picture had painted
out. In the second picture, a woman in the attitude of prayer was found
to have been painted over what was in the original the figure of a man
in monk’s garb.
The first X-ray pictures ever taken of a mummy were completed by
scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.
The pictures showing the skeleton in detail are expected to be a great
aid in studying the development of bone formations in the evolution of
man. This first subject of the scientists’ X-ray was a South American
Indian mummy. Fake mummies, like false gems, are instantly detected by
X-ray methods.
One of the methods used for detecting the theft of diamonds at the
mines is to examine the workmen with X-rays. Of course, a fluoroscope
is used to make the X-ray image visible, and this is the type used in
any regular X-ray work.
The X-rays are now being used in shoe-stores—“foot-o-scope”
instruments—to enable shoe salesmen to see the bones of a customer’s
foot and thus make correct fittings of shoes.
A few years ago there arrived from Germany a new kind of mechanical
doll. “A secret mechanism inside enabled it to walk, sit down or stand
up, and to do other unusual things. The importer in possession of the
sample doll would not allow it to be opened. But one of the competitors
borrowed the doll. He had promised not to open it. But he made some
X-ray photographs of it. Now he is manufacturing these dolls himself.”
During the World War every effort was made to introduce contraband
materials into Germany and if it had not been for the all-seeing eye of
the Roentgen ray, it would have been impossible to prevent materials of
the utmost importance to the enemy from reaching him by way of neutral
countries. Efforts were made repeatedly to smuggle rubber and copper by
burying them in bales or bundles of other materials. It would have been
impossible to have made a minute investigation of every bale that was
shipped, but by means of X-rays it was possible to see through these
bundles and packages and locate any substances that were more or less
opaque to the rays.
The X-ray has been found useful for examining timber up to 18 inches
thick for internal knots, resin pockets, cracks and other defects.
“When submarines were active and the supply of the best kinds of wood
was uncertain, it was necessary to make some of the wooden parts out
of small pieces of ordinary wood fitted and glued together. The way
these pieces were joined and fastened was extremely important. A bit of
weak glue inside some little strut might mean a disastrous collapse in
the air. But real inspection seemed impossible, for the places where
important faults might exist were hidden from view. Finally scientists
solved the problem by building an X-ray apparatus with which they could
look into the inside of each built-up airplane part and tell whether it
held some little imperfection which might prove dangerous.
“This ‘internal inspection’ of wooden articles by X-ray has been
applied, since the war, to many other articles. Hidden joints inside
high-class furniture and cabinet work, invisible knots and flaws inside
the wood itself, can be determined easily by X-ray examination.” (W. S.
Ogden).
_The Scientific American_ (September, 1924) published an abstract of
a paper read before the _Deutschen Bunsen-Gesellschaft_, in which
Dr. D. Coster showed that “the relations between the X-ray spectra of
the different elements are so simple that, in some respects, they are
more useful for purposes of chemical analysis than ordinary luminous
spectra. An important advantage is the fact that the X-ray spectrum
of an element is quite independent of the nature of the compound
containing it. It is easy to detect the presence in a mixture of
which not more than one milligram is available. Certain precautions
are necessary in examining the X-ray spectra; although the number of
lines for each element is comparatively limited, recent observations
have shown the existence of a number of weaker lines; in addition to
this, with the high voltages now generally used, not only the spectrum
of the first order, but also those of higher orders appear. Slight
impurities in the material of the anticathode, and in the subject
under examination, also give their lines, so that there are often
various possibilities to be considered before a given line can be
explained. Not only the wave length, but also the typical appearance
of the suspected lines must be considered, as well as their relative
intensity. By measuring photometrically the intensity of the spectral
lines it is possible, in some cases, to obtain a quantitative estimate
of the amount of an element present in a mixture.”
Another method of rapid analysis of material in the laboratory by
the use of X-rays in a much shorter time than that required by the
older chemical methods is that devised by Professor Urbain, of the
Minero-Chemical Laboratory at the Sorbonne, with the assistance of
Eugene Delaunay. Mr. Delaunay, who did the actual work of testing the
new X-ray method, says there is no risk of error.
By employment of X-rays the scientist is now able to ascertain the
arrangement of the atoms and molecules within the crystal “network”
(structure—or “space lattice” of the crystal).[1] The results are
obtained from the study of the reflection and refraction of the rays by
the crystals, or, more precisely, the successive rows of molecules in
the crystal. These act toward the extremely short X-rays in the same
way as a grating spectroscope does to ordinary light-rays.
Man’s ability to lengthen the ultra-violet end of the spectrum is
limited by his capacity to provide a diffraction grating, or a mineral
prism, which can split up light-waves of increasingly greater frequency
(or shortness). The width of a grating space (a fine line on speculum
metal, which acts as a minute mirror) must be comparable to the wave
length of the light. Previous to the discoveries of Prof. Max von
Laue in Munich (now in Zurich), and Prof. William Henry Bragg, of the
University of London, no grating or other material was known whose
spaces were as small as the wave length of X-rays. Laue conceived the
brilliant idea that the regular arrangement of the atoms in a crystal
might serve the purpose. They did. Bragg, and later his son, Prof. W.
L. Bragg, of the University of Manchester, followed up the work of Laue
with results of immeasurable value to science.
A very important relation between the atomic number of an element
and its X-ray spectrum was discovered by the brilliant young English
physicist, H. G. T. Moseley (1888-1915), in his 26th year, a year
before his death by a Turkish bullet at the Dardanelles. While
analyzing the characteristic X-rays which are given off when any kind
of substance is bombarded with cathode rays, Moseley found that the
atoms of all the different substances emit radiations or groups of
radiations which are extraordinarily similar, but which differ in their
wave lengths as we proceed from substance to substance; the frequencies
(wave lengths) change by definite steps as one progresses from elements
of lower to elements of higher atomic weights. Through Moseley’s
epoch-making discovery we now know that each of the 92 elements,
from hydrogen to uranium, is built up by successive additions of one
positive charge (proton) and one negative electron, and that the atomic
numbers—from 1 to 92—correspond to the number of protons and electrons
in each successively heavier (and more complex) atom.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This phase of our subject can only be alluded to in this little
book. For an authoritative yet easily understood exposition of the
subject, see Bragg, W. H. and W. L., “X-Rays and Crystal Structure”;
also Kaye, G. W. C., “X-Rays”; and, for more advanced reading,
deBroglie, Maurice, “X-Rays”.
CHAPTER II
CURATIVE VALUE OF X-RAYS
In my Little Blue Book on Radium (No. 1000), it is shown that the
“emanation” and the “gamma rays” of radioactive substances are being
used to great advantage in our hospitals, but that certain dangers to
the patient’s normal cells attended employment of these radiations.
It is gratifying to note that successful X-ray treatments are now
being given in cases of cancer, rays being produced—under high-tension
currents—that are almost identical with the gamma rays of radium.
Moreover, the X-rays have a double value in medicine. In the first
place, they are used as an aid to diagnosis, forming those branches of
radiotherapy known as radioscopy and radiography. Then they are also
used to great advantage in the alleviation or cure of certain maladies.
By means of radioscopic or radiographic examination it may be found
that there is a tumor in the chest, and as a result of that diagnosis
it may be decided to institute treatment (radiotherapy) by means of
X-rays or radium rays or the two combined.
The method of employing extremely penetrating X-rays—under high voltage
and amperage—seems to have been first used in Germany, during the World
War, but was soon developed to a high degree of efficiency in France,
England, and the United States, especially by Dr. William Duane,
professor of biophysics at Harvard.
As early as 1919, Professor Dessauer, in Germany, produced the
penetrating X-rays by means of a high-tension current ranging from
170,000 to 240,000 volts. It was later found, that rays at 200,000
volts became homogeneous, so that a further increase was considered as
of no therapeutic value.
In March, 1923, Dr. I. Seth Hirsch, head of the X-ray department of the
Bellevue Hospital in New York, gave a drastic treatment—for cancer—of
four periods of 16 hours each with the X-rays at 250,000 volts,
apparently with satisfactory results. The patient suffered no pain or
inconvenience during the treatment with the exception of occasional
nausea. A year later an experiment was made in a Philadelphia
laboratory where an X-ray treatment of 300,000 volts was used. It seems
that alleviation rather than cure has been the result of nearly all
cases where cancer had been well advanced.
Other important improvements, meanwhile, were being introduced by the
German specialists, during the World War and later, among which was
the just mentioned method of giving large tissue-destroying doses,
requiring from ten to 15 hours; to this was added careful filtration
of the rays, and the invention of the _ionto_—a quantimeter for exact
measurements. A number of malignant diseases is reported to have
yielded to this new system of massive doses under higher voltage. But
Professor Duane has stated that neither X-rays nor the gamma rays of
radium should be considered as a permanent cure for cancer.
Until recently the tubes in which X-rays are produced have always been
made of glass. The latest discovery is a tube made of fused silica, or
vitreosil. Vitreosil permits the passage of the short rays, will stand
a much higher temperature than glass, and is much stronger. This means
more continuous service from X-rays.
According to Dr. Francis C. Wood, director of the Crocker Institute
of Cancer Research of Columbia University, a marked advance in the
treatment of cancer has been made possible by a new type of X-ray
tube, the invention of Dr. C. T. Ulrey, of the Westinghouse Company.
The new tube has a higher emissive power—in other words, it is as if
the candle-power of an ordinary lamp were increased six-fold. It is
besides designed for use with higher voltages than have previously
been practical in Roentgenology. The result is to reduce the necessary
exposure from two or three hours per patient to 20 minutes, and to
increase the life of the tubes. Incidentally, the new tube gives a
greater proportion of the type of rays that cure certain forms of
cancer, and less of the sort that attack healthy tissue.
A revolutionary discovery by Dr. Jacques Forestier, of Aix-les-Bains,
France, for which a gold medal was awarded him in 1925 by the French
Academy, has made possible a method of exact diagnosis by X-rays
heretofore deemed by many workers impossible of attainment.
As is well known, it is not difficult to make an X-ray picture of
the bones of the body. They are so much denser than the soft parts
of the body that, even with the ordinary photographic plate, it has
been possible to photograph them fairly well. By pumping the stomach
full of gas or air—which are highly transparent to the X-rays—and
then applying the X-ray, it has sometimes been possible to locate the
beginnings of cancer of the stomach, and the place of malignant growth.
Another method in common use is to give the patient about a pint of
some substance opaque to X-rays, such as bismuth carbonate, thus making
it possible to record the passage of the mixture, the outline of the
stomach and the intestines thus being made visible. In this way ulcers
of the stomach have been frequently located.
Bismuth and similar substances could not be injected into the brain
or spinal cord, on account of their poisonous effect on the highly
sensitive cells of these regions. Now, thanks to the method discovered
by Dr. Forestier, the cavities of the brain and spine can be safely
explored, as well as the network of bronchial tubes in the lung—the
so-called “bronchial tree.”
In an interview with Mr. David Dietz, Dr. Forestier said (in part):
“I make use of a French oil called lipiodol. It is a chemical compound
composed of poppyseed oil and iodine. The chemical previously had been
used as a treatment for certain diseases, such as goiter. But no one
had ever thought of using it in X-ray work.
“I noticed that where patients had been treated with lipiodol opaque
spots appeared when X-ray pictures were made of the treated parts. It
occurred to me, therefore, that lipiodol could be used as a means of
making photographs.
“Accordingly, in company with Dr. Sicard of Paris, I began to
experiment. We worked with animals until we were convinced of the
correctness of our method. When we were sure that it was safe we tried
it on human beings. I have used it in more than 5,000 cases in Europe
without having a single adverse result.
“The lipiodol is injected into the brain cavity or the canal of the
spinal cord or the bronchial tubes and then a regular X-ray photograph
is made. The oil renders the injected part opaque to X-rays and they
show up as sharp black images in the photographs.
“The method is of particular value when a patient is suffering from
paralysis which has been caused by a pressure of a tumor or growth
somewhere along the spinal cord. In this case a drop of the oil is
injected into the spinal canal at the base of the brain. In a healthy
patient it would immediately travel to the base of the spine. But
in the paralyzed patient it only travels as far as the point of
compression. The X-ray picture therefore reveals the drop of oil as a
black spot. The surgeon then knows the exact spot at which to operate
in order to find the growth causing the pressure, which in turn results
in paralysis.
“In diagnosing the lungs with the use of lipiodol the injection in the
bronchial tree enables the X-ray worker to tell at once whether the
patient is suffering from diseases of the bronchial tubes themselves,
or from diseases of the lung tissue, such as tuberculosis.”
It is gratifying to be able to relate that along with the improvements
already described, progress has also been made in the preparation of
photographic plates required by the radiographer. Until recently no
photographic plate had been made which fully met the requirements of
X-ray work, and there was little contrast in X-ray photographs. They
were all much too sensitive to the longer (visible) wave lengths, and
produced blurring effects.
Early in 1921 an excellent photographic plate, 25 times more rapid than
anything previously known, was invented by Dr. Leonard A. Levey, a
prominent member of the Roentgen Society. It makes an X-ray photograph
of the vital organs of the living body whose movements have hitherto
blurred the images on the ordinary photographic plate. Distinct
pictures of the heart, lungs and stomach can now be made. Dr. Levey has
made snapshot photographs of the heart, lungs and kidneys. All were
taken in a flash with the X-rays on the new plate.
Dr. H. Becher has called the attention of Americans to the achievement
of Dr. Schleussner, an eminent German authority in photochemical
matters, who has succeeded, after years of investigation, in
sensitizing photographic plates for X-ray use by an addition of certain
organic salts which are absorbed by the grains of silver bromide on the
photographic plate. The plate thus formed is very responsive to the
soft rays of an X-ray tube. The soft rays are relatively longer than
the hard Roentgen rays. One could compare the soft rays to blue-violet
light, if their effects on this new photographic plate are used for the
comparison. Photographs taken with such plates give very contrasting
effects.
On the “Neo-Roentgen plate” the effect of the yellow light was almost
nil. For this reason, developing the plate is considerably facilitated,
as the plate can be exposed to yellow light and the attendant, who need
not be a skilled operator, can examine the plate in a rather brilliant
light without necessarily guessing at possible results. The examination
of the plate under a ruby light is, therefore, completely done away
with. It follows that if the new X-ray plate should come into general
use, much clearer X-ray photographs would be possible; the time of
exposure could be decreased; an unskilled operator could develop the
plate in a room flooded with yellow light. Such improved plates are now
being extensively used.
While not attempting to enumerate all the special affections to which
X-ray therapy is now being successfully applied, a few uses may be
mentioned.
X-RAYS CURE WHOOPING COUGH
In a preliminary report published in the _Medical and Surgical Journal_
(Boston), Dr. Henry I. Bowditch and Dr. Ralph D. Leonard express the
belief that a valuable cure for whooping cough has been found in X-ray
treatment of this disease, which has stubbornly resisted most, if not
all, of the other remedies applied.
Definite improvement was noted in most of 26 cases of active pertussis
(whooping cough) treated with the X-ray, the subjects of which ranged
in age from three months to 40 years, with disease stages from one to
ten weeks. The physicians added that they could not give any rational
explanation of the action through which the X-ray appeared to produce
beneficial results. The report said:
“Each patient received three or four applications of the X-ray at
intervals of two or three days.”
Many of these cases have not been observed sufficiently long to
determine the final result. Nevertheless, “it is evident to us that
there resulted a definite improvement in these patients which cannot
be explained by mere accident.... It does not seem likely that [the
beneficial result] is due to any direct bactericidal property of the
X-ray.
“We feel warranted in classifying a small percentage of these 26 cases
under the heading of “prompt cures.” By this we mean that after two or
three applications of X-rays, covering a period of six days, the spasms
and whoops entirely disappeared and the patients were clinically well,
except for, possibly, a very slight cough.
“The bulk of the cases, however, we have classified as relieved. This
group consists of perhaps 70 percent of the total. By relieved we mean
that there has been a gradual diminution in the number of spasms.
“There is a small percentage of cases, perhaps 10 to 15 percent, which
apparently were not relieved. In this group are included one moribund
case and one rather difficult feeding case.
“While our evidence so far is not sufficient to warrant any definite
conclusions, we have the feeling that the X-ray at the present time may
be of more value in the treatment of pertussis than any other form of
treatment, including serum.”
X-RAYS FOR MALARIA
An Italian physician, Dr. Antonio Pais, of Venice, has since 1916
been successfully treating malaria by means of X-rays. This treatment
is, however, not employed as a substitute for quinine, but merely to
reinforce its action. The X-rays are directed toward the region of the
spleen, and the effect is to reduce its enlargement. At the same time
the composition of the blood is modified. The success obtained by Dr.
Pais has, according to the _Bibliothèque Universelle et Révue Suisse_
(Lausanne), been so great that the Italian Government decided to
introduce his method of treatment into the military hospitals.
Since the war the treatment has been studied by Prof. B. Grassi, who
made a report, at an Italian scientific meeting, in which he declared
the action of X-rays upon chronic malaria to be “truly marvelous.” The
_Bibliothèque Universelle_ says, regarding earlier treatments:
“The attempt was made by them to destroy the parasite contained in the
spleen. But it is now known that the X-rays employed for therapeutic
action have no effect upon micro-organisms, although they may be
injurious to the elements of the blood. In the method devised by Dr.
Pais, the X-rays are employed to stimulate the functioning of the
spleen, of the marrow, and of the lympathic elements by means of
slight but prolonged excitation; they are employed in infinitesimal
doses—homeopathically, so to speak. Thus the result is absolutely
different as well as the method.”
Dr. James B. Murphy demonstrated that accompanying cancer grafts on
immune animals there occurs a general increase in the circulating
lymphocytes and hyperplasia of the lymphoid tissue. When the lymphoid
tissue of immune animals was destroyed, the immunibility was annulled.
Two methods of increasing the lymphocytes have been found, namely,
diffuse small doses of X-rays, and dry heat. Mice with lymphocytosis
induced by these agents show Increased resistance to replants of their
own tumors. The results afford ground for hope of human application.
(Reported in _Scientific American Monthly_, January, 1920, page 96.)
It has been found that actively growing tissue, whether normal
or pathological, is the most susceptible to X-rays, and it is
comparatively easy to sterilize a number of species of animals
without otherwise injuring them. (Prof. James W. Mayor, _Science_,
September 23, 1921.) C. R. Bardeen found that X-rays prevent worms from
regenerating lost parts. Observations of the effect of exposure to
X-rays on the fertility of animals were described in a paper by Prof.
L. H. Snyder of the North Carolina College of Agriculture. Exposure of
male rats to X-rays, he said, had rendered them sterile at the end of
two months, the animals regaining fertility when no longer subjected to
the rays.
If not handled with due caution and skill, X-rays may do more harm
than good, provoking malignant growths as well as retarding their
development. As early as 1911, Otto Heese published a record of 54
cases of cancer caused by means of improper handling of these powerful
rays.
In the early days of X-ray therapy the nature and effects of these
radiations were wholly unknown. Operators did not hesitate to test
and adjust their tubes by throwing the shadow of their hands on the
flouroscope. X-rays do not make objects visible to the human eye, and
to see the effects of them it is necessary to interpose a special
screen between the eyes and object through which the X-rays are to
penetrate. The cardboard screen is coated with a fluorescent substance,
such as barium-platinum-cyanide, or calcium tungstate. This screen is
best placed in one end of a black wooden or pasteboard box, against the
other end of which the eyes are placed when in use.
This screen under the influence of X-rays becomes luminous and enables
one to see shadows or silhouettes of objects of denser material
interposed between the eyes and the X-ray tube, when the tube is in
operation.
CHAPTER III
MARTYRS TO RADIOLOGY
It was not until several years after the discovery of X-rays by
Roentgen, in December, 1895—after operators had been severely burned
in laboratories and hospitals all over the world, and surgeons and
physicians began to compare notes, that the pathological effects of
X-rays were discovered and understood.
Says John Macy (in his memorial volume on Walter James Dodd, heroic
victim of 50 separate operations due to X-ray burn):
“It is easy now to understand what was happening to Dodd and his
contemporaries. In a modern X-ray machine the strength of the current,
the quality of the spark, all the conditions, are determined by
metrical instruments. In the early days the operator tested his tube
and adjusted it by throwing the shadow of his hand on the fluoroscope;
by the look of the shadow he judged how the machine was behaving. First
he used the left hand until that became too sore, then the right. And
until devices were found to focus and confine the rays, the face of the
operator was exposed, and sometimes the neck and chest were burned.
A limited exposure to the X-ray is as harmless as a walk in the
sunlight. It is the repeated, continuous bombardment of the ray that is
calamitous. Dodd and the other pioneers lived in the X-ray.”
John L. Bauer was the first victim of the X-ray, in 1906. He was
followed in 1914 by Henry Green, who, although he knew he was doomed,
and in spite of the fact that he had become almost helpless physically
because so much flesh had been cut away in amputating cancerous
growths, persisted in his work to the end.
Major Eugene Wilson Caldwell of the Medical Reserve Corps of the United
States Army, the inventor of the Caldwell liquid interrupter and
other devices for therapeutic use, lost his life in 1918. Dr. Charles
Infroit of the Salpetrière Hospital, Paris, died on November 29, 1920.
One of Dr. Infroit’s hands became infected in 1898 as a result of his
continuous use of the X-ray, and an operation was performed. After that
he had 24 other operations, 22 of them performed in the last ten years
of his life, the last on August 1, 1920, when his right arm and left
wrist were amputated.
Dr. Charles Vaillant, whose heroic services to humanity have made
necessary 13 amputations until now he is armless, on February 19,
1923, received from United States Ambassador Herrick the Carnegie
plaque, while the cravat of the Paris Gold Medal of the French Legion
of Honor was conferred upon the martyr. Physicians say further
amputations are inevitable, and that these will result in Vaillant’s
death.
In 1921, the eminent English radiologists, Dr. Cecil Lyster and Dr.
Ironside Bruce, and Dr. Adolphe Leroy of the St. Antonie Hospital in
Paris, died martyrs to their noble profession. “All of these men went
knowingly to death. Perhaps they did not take their sacrifices in the
spirit of the saint, possessed by a vision of suffering humanity.
Theirs may have been the ardor of the scientist, the endurance of a
worker who hears the challenge of nature’s silence and goes to battle.
But in themselves they express the powerful urge of a spirit that longs
to see, to feel, to know, and to possess all the mysteries of the
universe. It is the same spirit that makes men rebel and agonize for
a better order of humanity. These men seem better than the world that
produces them. But each of them, when he dies, may pull the rest of
humanity a little closer to his level.”
Dr. Frederick Henry Baetjer of Johns Hopkins Hospital has only two of
his ten fingers left. He lost the other eight as the result of burns
received in X-ray experimentation.
Dr. Francis Carter Wood, X-Ray and radium expert of the Crocker Special
Fund Cancer Laboratory of New York, calls particular attention to
the fact that “the deaths which are occurring now are the results of
repeated exposures ten or more years ago, when no one knew what the
effect of the rays might be. The burns suffered then were the result of
continuous exposure without protection against the rays. One exposure,
or a moderate number of them, would do no harm; but before the present
perfection of the apparatus it was necessary to adjust the focus for
each picture, and the operator would do this by looking at his bare
hands through the fluoroscope. This resulted in chronic burns, and the
burned flesh formed a fertile soil for cancer. Lead one-quarter of an
inch thick will stop both radium and X-rays.”
In Dr. Wood’s opinion, workers in X-rays today “need not suffer any ill
effects except through their own carelessness.”
A discovery which promises to put an end to the dangers to life and
limb risked by those who engage in working with X-rays was communicated
to the Academy of Sciences of Paris as early as May, 1920. It is the
result of experiments by Dr. Pesch of the Faculty of Montpelier, who
himself is one of the sufferers from X-rays, and who has long been
seeking the means of protecting his young confrères.
He found that deep red rays are antagonistic to the ultra-violet
rays which produce irritation and burning of the skin, and certain
oxidations. Thus, by the simultaneous application of both rays he
secures immunity for X-ray workers. He has already proved that erythema
can be prevented by the application of red rays. Daniel Berthelot, who
announced the discovery to the Academy, recalled that as long ago as
1872 the antagonism of extreme rays of the spectrum had been foreseen
by Becquerel in his study of phosphorescence.
Dr. Pesch employs a filter composed of a plastic material that allows
only the red and yellow rays to pass. It is claimed that by means of
this filter not only are the X-rays made harmless, but its employment
effects a cure for radio-dermatitis, the affection which has maimed or
killed so many of the early workers in X-ray therapy.
According to Dr. G. Contremoulins, Chief of the principal laboratory
of the Paris hospitals, whose researches and experiments were begun
in February, 1896, the usual methods of protection even today are not
always adequate. Says he (in _La Démocratie Nouvelle_, Paris, April,
1921):
“Young radiologists, especially those born of the war, take no heed
of the experience acquired by their elders, being quite convinced
that the glasses, gloves and aprons containing lead offer a perfect
protection—they even imagine that strictly speaking they might get
along without them.
“Like a child which hides behind a wooden door to shield itself from
the bullets of a machine gun, our young radiologists believe they are
safe when they have donned their gloves and examine their patients
behind a sheet of lead glass. But, unfortunately, these enable them
only to avoid those superficial skin affections caused by the most
absorbable rays of the spectrum.
“But they receive, alas, those other radiations which are more
penetrating, and these slowly produce lesions of all the ductless
glands in the body, whose internal secretions we now know to be of such
vital importance in the bodily economy.”
The modern employment of 200,000 volts under three milliamperes gives
rise to the need of great caution in the use of X-rays. Even the
health of persons in adjoining rooms or buildings, Dr. Contremoulins
believes may be imperiled. In the _Popular Science Monthly_ for
October, 1921, this veteran radiologist makes some startling
revelations. To quote a few passages:
“In April, 1896, five months after the discovery of X-rays—or Roentgen
rays, as they are also named in honor of their discoverer—a pose of
eight hours was required for a correct radiograph of a profile head,
the tube being placed ten inches from the sensitive plate.
“In April, 1921, a similar image was obtained in four hours at a
distance of 90 yards from the apparatus. This means that the radiation
with modern apparatus is more than 20,000 times stronger than was
possible in 1896.
“With the very weak radiation that I have used for my experiments,
corresponding to the ordinary radiographic and radioscopic work, it has
been easy for me to obtain images of metallic objects and human bones
placed on a sensitive plate 15 feet from the radiating source, although
the rays pass directly through a slab of marble an inch thick, a sheet
of lead one-tenth of an inch thick, and a flooring eight inches deep,
built of oak boards and rough plaster.
“Fifty feet from this same source I have been able in four hours to fog
a photographic plate placed behind a wall of brick and stone 20 inches
thick. Also in the same time I have obtained a correct radiograph
of a skull and a crab, 262 feet from the X-ray machine. All these
experiments were made with a 17-centimeter spark and two milliamperes
of current.
“If photographic plates are so readily affected by these rays, we must
admit that animal cells also are affected to an appreciable degree.
The X-rays that are being used to cure a patient may at the same time
inflict radio-dermatitis on other persons exposed to their influence in
adjoining rooms or buildings. Nothing will suffice for safety but to
cover the walls and floors of X-ray rooms with sheets of lead from a
quarter to half an inch thick, according to the power of the source and
its distance from the lining....
“Biologic reactions from X-rays take two forms. The first is a skin
lesion known as radio-dermatitis, caused by the skin’s absorbing a
large quantity of radiations. The second results from the improvements
in X-ray tubes and the use of filters absorbing the radiations of
long wave length, currently named ‘soft radiation.’ This reaction
takes place deep beneath the skin upon the active cells that are the
most vulnerable. It is principally the internal secretion glands that
are affected. Among those who continually receive even weak doses,
a gradual lessening of vitality takes place, leading slowly to a
physiological impoverishment that inevitably carries them off sooner or
later.”
Dr. Contremoulins was able to escape serious injury up to the outbreak
of the World War, but is now a victim of his services to wounded
soldiers. As a result of his efforts—and due also, partly, to suits
brought against a Paris physician by neighbors who alleged that their
health had been impaired, resulting (perhaps) in two cases of cancer—a
thorough-going investigation was undertaken by the French Ministry of
Hygiene.
Dr. Declere of the Academy of Medicine presided over a committee which
included Mme. Curie, M. Becquerel, a radiologist; Dr. Vaillant and a
number of specialists. A leading member of the Academy said he did
not believe that X-rays menaced persons who did not come into direct
contact with them.
“I intend to study the question by three methods,” he said. “First, we
shall make a purely physical examination, studying the action of the
rays and in what measure they exert themselves at certain distances.
Second, we shall experiment with the living tissues of rabbits, trying
various distances several hours a day and noting the effect on the
red and white corpuscles and glands of the animals. Then, since it
is impossible to make such experiments on human bodies, we shall
collect data based on 25 years’ experience with X-rays to see whether
physicians in close contact have been burned.”
While X-ray treatment cannot be said to _cure_ a deep-seated cancer,
it is undoubtedly being given with highly beneficial results in many
cases, alleviating much suffering and retarding the growth of malignant
tissues.
As is well known, tuberculosis can advance to a dangerous stage before
it exhibits physical symptoms recognizable by physicians. The X-ray
not only brings to light incipient consumption, but reveals the exact
place and extent of the lesion. Any abnormalities of the alimentary
tract, also, may readily be brought to view, as well as certain effects
produced on certain arteries, due to arterio-sclerosis or to angina
pectoris (a very painful form of heart disease).
It has been well said that “the list of diseases, the presence and
extent of which are betrayed or confirmed by the X-ray, would fill
pages and would include most of the enemies to human health. Among them
may be mentioned many forms of tuberculosis, occult abscesses whose
ramifying consequences physicians were once unable to refer to their
source, tumors, cancers, kidney stones, gastric ulcers, diseases of the
heart.”
The martyrdom of radiologists has not been in vain.
In cases of emergency, X-ray diagnosis may now be given patients in
their own homes. A surgical X-ray outfit that can be carried in an
ambulance and taken to the bedside of a patient too ill for removal
to a hospital passed a successful trial in England, thus adapting an
emergency war-time arrangement to civilian use. A generator in the
ambulance operates the tube, which has a special mounting that enables
it to be placed over the patient’s bed, and adjusted for height and
position by hand-wheels. The control apparatus is mounted on a separate
stand, and connected with the ambulance outside by a cable wound on a
reel. Provision is made for developing the exposed plates at once, so
that a diagnosis can be made in a few minutes.
CHAPTER IV
DISCOVERY AND NATURE OF X-RAYS
In March, 1923, there passed from this world one of the most beautiful
exemplars of the true scientific spirit that earth has ever seen—Dr.
William Conrad Roentgen, F.R.S., Professor of Experimental Physics in
the University of Munich, the discoverer of X- or Roentgen Rays.
Born at Lennep, on March 27, 1845, Professor Roentgen filled a number
of important posts before his death in 1923, in which year he was
awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics—an award which brought with it a
gift of $40,000. Although suffering from the poverty which resulted in
Germany as an aftermath of the World War, Professor Roentgen refused to
utilize the Nobel Prize award for his own personal uses. He gave the
entire sum to a research society to enable other students to carry on
their investigations.
While occupying the chair of Professor of Physics and Director of the
Physical Institute at Würzburg, Dr. Roentgen made the discovery—in
1895—for which his name is chiefly known—though his researches led to
important advances in several other departments of physics.
While experimenting with a highly exhausted vacuum tube on the
conductivity of electricity through gases, Dr. Roentgen noticed that
a paper screen covered with potassium platinocyanide—a phosphorescent
substance—which chanced to be lying nearby, became fluorescent under
action of some radiation emitted from the tube, which at the time
was enclosed in a box of black cardboard. Professor Roentgen then
found, by experiment, that this heretofore unknown radiation had the
power to pass through various substances which are impenetrable to
ordinary light-rays. He found that if a thick piece of metal—a coin,
for example,—were placed between the tube and a plate covered with the
phosphorescent substances, a sharp shadow was cast upon the plate. On
the other hand, thin plates of aluminum and pieces of wood cast only
partial shadows.
Thus was it demonstrated that the rays which produced the
phosphorescence on the glass of the vacuum tube could penetrate bodies
quite opaque to ordinary light-rays. Like ordinary light, these rays
affected a photographic plate; but owing to their peculiar behavior in
regard to reflection and refraction, Roentgen was led to put forward
the hypothesis that the rays were due to longitudinal, rather than
to transverse waves in the “ether.” They will ionize gases, but
they cannot be reflected, polarized or deflected by a magnetic or
electric field, as are ordinary light-rays. (It has been shown that the
_scattered_ secondary rays show polarization.)
Being in doubt as to the real nature of these penetrating rays,
Roentgen called them “X-rays.”
In 1896 Professor Roentgen was the recipient of the Rumford Medal of
the Royal Society. This honor was shared by his compatriot Philipp
Lenard. Lenard was the discoverer of the rays emanating from the outer
surface of a plate composed of (any) material permeable by cathode
rays. By impinging on solids, the cathode rays (negative electrons)
generate X-rays. “Lenard rays,” which are similar in all their known
properties to cathode rays projected from the cathode of a vacuum tube,
do not emanate from the cathode. (Unlike the X-rays, cathode rays may
be deflected from their natural course along “straight lines” by the
application of a magnetic or electric field.) Professor Lenard, as also
Hertz, discoverer of the now well-known “wireless waves,” had already
demonstrated that a portion of the cathode rays could pass through a
thin film of a metal such as aluminum.
When Roentgen rays (X-rays) are allowed to fall upon any substance, the
matter emits cathodic (or secondary Roentgen) rays. “The characteristic
secondary radiation may be compared with the phosphorescence produced
by ultra-violet light, and the cathodic secondary rays with the
photoelectric effect” (Sir J. J. Thomson).[2]
The penetrating power (“hardness”) of these rays appears to be
determined solely by the nature of the elements in the emitting
substance. The velocity of the cathodic (or secondary Roentgen) rays
seems to be quite independent of the matter exposed to the primary
rays, but increases as the hardness (penetrating power) of the primary
Roentgen rays increases.
The _character_ of the emitted rays, in brief, appears to be quite
unaffected by the chemical or physical condition of the element.
Red-hot iron, for example, exhibits the same characteristic Roentgen
radiation as iron at room temperature. But the _penetrating power_
(hardness) of this characteristic (emitting) radiation increases
gradually and continuously with increasing atomic weight of the
emitting elements. The complete independence of the penetrating power
of the characteristic Roentgen radiation from external surroundings
indicates strongly that it is closely connected with the nature of the
nuclei (“cores”) of the atoms giving rise to it.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] When ultra-violet light is allowed to fall upon a metal it causes
the metal to emit electrons and thus to acquire a positive charge, the
velocity of the emitted electrons being exactly proportional to the
frequency of the incident light. Or when light of X-ray type falls
upon the surface of almost any substance, it takes hold of an electron
in the atoms of that surface and hurls it out into space with a speed
exactly proportional to the wave length of the light. This phenomenon
is known as the photoelectric effect.
CHAPTER V
ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT IN HEALTH AND DISEASE
That both the compound rays of ordinary sunlight and ultra-violet rays
(“artificial sunlight”) are highly effective in the treatment of a
number of complaints is now well known. They are both in general use
for the external treatment of rickets, tuberculosis, and a number of
other diseases. Light-rays are also applied to hasten the healing of
wounds.
The use of the sun as a healing agent seems first to have been
developed in a scientific way by Dr. Neils R. Finsen, a young Danish
physician who was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. His
original researches were undertaken toward the end of the 19th century.
Then Dr. Rollier opened the first sunlight clinic in 1903, and in 1910
established his school at Leysin, in the Alps. Dr. Rollier is now
treating about 1,000 patients, mostly afflicted with various forms of
tuberculosis of the bone. The sun cure is also used to some extent for
pulmonary tuberculosis, and with considerable success. (See my _Man’s
Debt to the Sun_, Little Blue Book No. 808, Chapter IV.)
According to Dr. Rollier, exposure of the diseased to the sun’s rays is
efficacious in the treatment of anemia, malnutrition, bone and gland
infections and various types of tuberculosis, and is a body builder for
convalescents. On the outskirts of San Rafael, California, is a novel
sun sanitarium, Helios Sanitarium, modeled after the Alpine sanitaria
of Dr. Rollier.
Two investigators have recently studied the comparative germ-destroying
power of the blood in healthy and ill persons, before and after
exposure to sunlight. It was found that the germ-killing power of the
blood was increased when the sun bath lasted for a certain length of
time. It was shown that too long or too short an exposure decreased the
blood’s power. It was decreased also in patients who had fever. Several
other conditions were found to influence the results. Physicians
believe that several points of practical value may emerge from these
experiments. One important and useful result is that they offer a new
method to guide and gauge the effects of treatment in tuberculosis and
other diseases.
The practice of X-ray treatment (since 1910 included under the more
general term _radiotherapy_) includes treatment not only by X-rays,
but also by all kinds of rays—treatment by heat, by the sun’s rays, by
ultra-violet rays, and even by violet rays. The rays of radioactive
substances used in medicine come under the etymological term of
radiotherapy. But in general practice, amongst radiologists, the term
is applied to treatment by X-rays alone. Nevertheless, it is now well
established that the ultra-violet rays are not only bactericidal, but
that they also play an important role in the treatment of certain
diseases, and in the maintenance of good health. On the other hand,
these rays produce a certain irritability among persons of the white
race in the tropics, which cannot be regarded as healthful in their
general effects.
Since the amount of ultra-violet light coming from the sun has been
shown by Abbott to be variable, it may be that some of the irritability
which seems to be general among the inmates of our public institutions
on certain days is due to this change in the sun’s outpour of
ultra-violet radiation. As Dr. E. E. Free remarked not long ago:
“Put these facts together. Ultra-violet rays affect life. The amount of
ultra-violet coming from the sun is variable. Does this mean that some
of the obscure, day by day variations of health can be due to this?
Some days everybody seems happy and cheerful. Other days everybody
is depressed. Still other days are breeders of ‘nerves.’ Maybe the
ultra-violet does it. Maybe not. Doubtless the investigators will find
out presently.”
Recent experiments at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station,
conducted under the direction of Dr. John W. Gowen, have led to the
important discovery that milk from cows that have been treated with
ultra-violet light, from mercury-vapor quartz lamps, contains a much
larger amount of the substance—presumably a vitamine, or vitamines—that
prevents rickets in children and young animals. At any rate, it was
found that the milk from cows deprived of sunlight and ultra-violet
light was quite deficient in the anti-rachitic factor. Animals and
birds fed on the sunless milk uniformly developed rickets.
The Holstein-Friesian cows used in the experiments were of nearly the
same age and calving date and all received like treatment as to feed,
temperature, etc., and stood side by side in the same barn. “Throughout
the treatment,” says Dr. Gowen, “these cows did not leave the barn. For
one month none of the cows received ultra-violet light. For the second
month two cows received ultra-violet light 15 minutes a day, generated
from a Cooper-Hewitt alternating current light at three feet above
their backs. For the third month these cows received ultra-violet
light for 30 minutes a day under the same conditions. In the meantime
Rhode Island Red chickens were allowed to develop rickets, shown both
clinically and by X-ray photographs. They were divided into two lots,
one lot of these chickens receiving milk from the ultra-violet cows,
the other of two lots of chickens, milk from the control cows. Both
lots received all the milk they wished.
The chickens have now been under treatment 50 days. The lot receiving
milk from cows exposed to ultra-violet light are in good condition
with no appearance of rickets in X-ray plates. The lot receiving
normal milk has moved progressively toward more extreme clinical
and X-ray rickets. The experiment was repeated, using the milk from
these same cows on White Leghorn chickens showing clinical and X-ray
rickets. Five chickens were in each lot. After 38 days’ treatment four
of the lot receiving milk from the ultra-violet cows are almost cured
of rickets, showing only a very slight stiffness. The fifth chicken
shows some stiffness. Four of the lot receiving the normal milk show
constantly increasing symptoms of the more advanced stages of clinical
rickets.
These results point to the conclusion that more of the substance
necessary to cure rickets is absorbed by the cow exposed to
ultra-violet light and secreted by her in her milk. The cows
prevented from receiving ultra-violet light are not able to secrete
this anti-rachitic substance in sufficient quantities to cure or
allay the process of clinical rickets. The results thus point to an
environmental factor transmitted by the cow to her offspring through
the medium of her milk. They further suggest that the high incidence
of rickets in children during the late winter months is due to their
mothers not receiving ultra-violet light either during pregnancy or
while in lactation. Furthermore, it would appear that cows’ milk
produced especially for baby-feeding should be from cows which have
access to ultra-violet light either from the sun or from some other
source.
Dr. C. C. Little of the University of Maine, and his associates, fully
demonstrated the value of sunlight to animal life through experiments
on a flock of 233 chicks. The chicks were divided into three groups and
all were given the same diet. One group was kept in natural sunlight,
the second was kept in sunlight that went through window glass, and
the third was given both natural sunlight and extra ultra-violet rays
produced artificially. The last class grew the best. The class that got
only natural sunlight grew normally. The class kept behind window glass
all developed bone disease. The glass of the greenhouse allowed the
light of the sun and the heat of infra-red rays to get through. But it
screened out the ultra-violet waves.
The beneficent effects of invisible ultra-violet rays are seen in
both the organism exposed to them and the food consumed. This is true
whether the rays come direct from the sun or by means of a quartz lamp.
Ordinary glass lamps prevent the ultra-violet rays from passing out.
But not all kinds of foodstuffs by any means are favorably affected by
the rays. Only those foods which contain fat seem to be materially
improved. The value of milk and of cod liver oil is greatly enhanced by
exposure to the rays. Dr. Benjamin Kramer has been highly successful in
treating babies affected with rickets by subjecting milk itself to the
action of ultra-violet light.[3]
As early as 1923, it had been shown by feeding experiments with
various types of animals at the University of Wisconsin that sunlight
was acting either directly upon the animal or upon its food. The
same dietary was found to produce contradictory results. It was
established—especially by H. Steenbock and E. B. Hart—that sunlight is
indispensable to man and beast, in that it is the determinant of the
efficiency with which calcium can be assimilated and retained. (See
their report, _Journal of Biological Chemistry_, Vol. 62, page 577,
1925.) Calcium, it is pointed out, needs to be conserved because in
proportion to the body needs it is not found abundantly in foods and
feeds. Steenbock and Hart tell us that sunlight plays the particular
rôle of conservator “by virtue of its content of ultra-violet
radiations of approximately 250 to 302 millimicrons in wave-length,
but unfortunately these are not present in sufficient degree to provide
a wide margin of safety for the animal. As a result we have rickets
in the young and poor dentition, restricted lactation, abortion and
impoverishment of the skeleton in lime to a dangerous extent in the
adult.... The ultra-violet rays bring their effect through the medium
of certain compounds widely distributed in plant and animal tissue, so
that practically any foodstuff can be ‘anti-rachitically’ activated.
‘Make hay while the sun shines’ is more than a mere poetic slogan,
for hay made in the dark is devoid of rickets-preventing properties”
(_Science_, December 4, 1925).
The careful experiments of J. S. Hughes showed that chickens receiving
a standard scratch feed and mash, supplemented with sprouted oats and
buttermilk, developed rickets (weak legs) when deprived of direct
sunlight. Chicks receiving the same feed but given sun baths developed
normally, although they were confined in a very small pen, with little
opportunity to exercise. Light from ordinary electric bulbs had very
little, if any, beneficial action. Light from the Hereus mercury arc
lamp was very beneficial. Cod liver oil also proved to be effective in
preventing rickets in chickens as in mammals.[4]
That such fats as olive oil and lard may be activated by exposure
to ultra-violet rays and used as a substitute for cod liver oil in
the treatment of rickets is evidenced by experiments reported by the
Department of Agricultural Chemistry of the University of Wisconsin.
In the series of experiments now published, olive oil and lard were
exposed to the action of the ultra-violet rays from a powerful
mercury-vapor quartz lamp, for periods of time ranging from half an
hour to 17 hours.
After exposure to the rays these fats were fed to a group of
experimental rats in which rickets had been produced, and the activated
olive oil and lard were found to have the same beneficial results
that follow the administration of cod liver oil. The weight of the
rats increased and an analysis of the bones showed an increase in the
calcium content.
Some of the activated olive oil, which had been stored in a stoppered
bottle, showed no change in potency ten months later. It was found
also that the fats might be activated by the rays from the open carbon
arc, the iron arc, and sunlight; but that exposure for such prolonged
periods as 17 hours destroyed their potency. This destruction took
place even on cod liver oil.[5]
It has long been known that human tissue is more actively changed by
light when it has been “sensitized.” Quinine, esculin, fluoresceine,
etc., are examples of tissue sensitizers, in addition to their
other effects. The most powerful of all known sensitizers is
haemato-porphyrin—or simply “porphyrin.” This sensitizer is a purple
substance closely allied to the haemoglobin that gives blood its red
color. Subtracting its iron and albumin from haemoglobin by appropriate
chemical processes leaves porphyrin. This substance reacts strongly to
the ultra-violet rays, in rare cases causing a disease which turns the
teeth to a deep purple hue. Victims of this uncommon ailment have to
wear gloves constantly, and when going out of doors during the day time
must put on heavy veils.[6] Porphyrin is capable of dissolving the red
corpuscles of the most dissimilar animals in the presence of sunlight.
But neither the haemato-porphyrin nor the light alone is capable of
injuring the animals. Only the combined effect of the two can harm
them. A physician experimentally injected an exceedingly minute
quantity into himself and then exposed himself to a moderate light, and
became very ill.
Hausmann found that even the diffused sunlight of an early spring
day in Vienna was sufficient to cause the death of white mice which
had been subjected to small quantities of this strange substance.
Dr. E. C. Van Leersum, of Holland, proved by experiments with rats
that the utilization of lime by our bodies can be controlled almost
at will by this “sensitization” process. Rickets, or a condition
indistinguishable from rickets, can be produced or cured by proper
control of the sensitization.
SUNLIGHT AND INFANTILE PARALYSIS
An article by Science Service, quoted in _Science_, September 11, 1925,
says:
Another of the dreaded diseases of childhood, infantile paralysis,
which, like rickets, graduates large quotas of cripples, has responded
to the good influence of the sun’s rays. Dr. G. Murray Levick, medical
director of the Heritage Craft Schools at Chailey, Sussex (England),
who originated the treatment, said that no other method has ever had
as good results as this in the treatment of infantile paralysis.
Dr. Levick first deduced that neurasthenia in grown-ups and rickets
in the young are due to the same cause. Both these diseases, he
claims, are nutritional disturbances of the nerve centers affecting
the bones in the young, and the nervous systems in the old. The action
of sunlight on the skin forms a substance which is carried into the
blood and feeds the nerve centers as well as the bones. His success in
treating neurasthenia with sun’s rays led him to apply it to cases of
infantile paralysis, a disease which is a severe shock to the nervous
system and which results in muscular atrophy. Under the action of
sunlight a renutrition of nerve centers takes place.
Synthetic sunlight produced by him with an electric arc light of his
own invention proved as good as natural sunlight, and could be better
regulated to the patient’s endurance. He used two distinct kinds of
light-rays, the short ultra-violet rays for nerve nutrition, and the
long red and infra-red rays for muscle treatment. Red rays, as can
be seen when the hand is held up against the sunlight, penetrate
the flesh to a considerable extent, and can therefore stimulate the
sleeping muscle.
Dr. Levick warns that immediate success must not be expected. He has
found constant improvement where short daily treatments were continued
over a period of several years. While the method may not be effective
in extreme cases, it is nevertheless a test which will soon show after
a few treatments whether any rejuvenation of the nerve fiber is taking
place.
It is now admitted that the (red) heat-waves may play some part in
heliotherapy—exposure to direct sunlight for medical purposes. Dr.
Lazarus-Barlow, Professor of Experimental Pathology in the University
of London, concludes that even though heat-rays may also play some
part in curative processes, “experience of the treatment of wounds by
sunlight in France during the World War indicated that a degree of
benefit arises from exposure to sunlight which cannot be attributable
to warmth and ultra-violet rays. On the other hand, in the Finsen light
treatment of lupus (a tubercular affection of the skin of the face,
occurring in several forms) and in the treatment of tuberculosis at
high altitudes, ultra-violet rays play a predominant part.”
As the ultra-violet rays penetrate but a fraction of a millimeter into
the epithelium, “it is uncertain how the rays act.” The suggestion is
here ventured that since the recently discovered Millikan Rays are
particularly powerful under the same conditions that make application
of the ultra-violet rays practicable as a therapeutic agency, it may
later be found that these highly penetrating rays, of exceedingly short
wave length, aid greatly in effecting some of the cures now attributed
wholly to the longer (and less penetrating) ultra-violet rays or the
much shorter X-rays.[7]
Professor Lazarus-Barlow calls attention to the fact that it is
precisely those tubercular persons who tan easily who are said to
derive the greatest benefit from a sojourn at high altitude.
Very remarkable is a recently adopted machine which “pours ultra-violet
light through a funnel down the throat of a patient.” The new
apparatus, first used in London, is employed for treatment of various
mouth and throat diseases, “thus making it possible for patients to
take internal baths of artificial sunlight” (_Science_, February 26,
1926).
In England, where the sky is so often overclouded, it is natural that
much attention has been given to ultra-violet ray therapy. A recent
press dispatch tells us:
“London recently had 23 consecutive days on which no beam of the sun
could force its way through the mantle of cloud and fog which spread
over that section of England. Now the Britons are making artificial
suns that may be available for both indoor and outdoor illumination.
Arc lights throwing powerful ultra-violet rays are being installed in
beauty shops and hotels, and patrons are given opportunity to bathe
their bodies in this brilliance. These rays are being billed as more
potent than sun baths, and citizens who have small chance to see the
orb of day get their sunshine and their medicine at one swoop.”
Two Indian scientists, S. S. Bhatnagar and R. B. Lal, of the University
of the Punjab, Lahore, discovered in 1925 that germs grow faster
when exposed to “polarized” light than to ordinary light. (Ordinary
light—according to the undulatory theory—is due to vibrations
transverse to the direction of the ray, but varying so rapidly as
to show no particular direction of their own, the fronts of the
light-waves crisscrossing at all angles. When, by any means, these
vibrations are given a definite direction, the light is said to be
_polarized_, the fronts of the waves being all arranged in the same
direction, though the path of the rays may be plane, elliptical,
circular, or rotary, according to the method of polarization employed.)
The Indian experimenters took cultures of the germs of typhoid fever
and cholera, and exposed one set to ordinary light, and another to a
beam of polarized light. The latter multiplied much faster than did the
germs under ordinary light.
It was demonstrated in 1925 by Dr. Elizabeth S. Semmens, of Bedford
College, London, that the digestion of starch takes place more readily
under polarized light than in ordinary light.
Prolonged exposure to the ultra-violet rays will destroy any germs
known to science. (Cathode rays—which are shorter than ultra-violet
rays—will kill not only germs, but insects as well, by means of a
device developed by Prof. W. D. Coolidge.)
“Bacteria,” says Dr. Coolidge, “have been rayed, and an exposure of
a tenth of a second has been found sufficient to kill even highly
resistant bacterial spores. Fruit flies, upon being rayed for a small
fraction of a second, instantly showed almost complete collapse, and in
a few hours were dead.”
This may lead to the application of cathode rays as a germicide, but
their effect on higher forms of life shows that their unskilled use
would be most dangerous. For example, Dr. Coolidge relates:
“The ear of a rabbit was rayed over a circular area one centimeter
in diameter for one second. After several days a scab formed which
fell off a few days later, taking the hair with it. Two weeks later a
profuse growth of snow-white hair started which soon became much longer
than the original gray hair. Another area was rayed for 50 seconds. In
this case, scabs developed on both sides of the ear, which scabs later
fell out, leaving a hole. The edge of this hole is now covered with
snow-white hair.”
A very interesting problem to scientists relates to the question as
to whether or not insects are color-blind. It may be that we now have
at least a partial answer to this vexed question, and in terms of
ultra-violet radiations.
Dr. Frank E. E. Germann, of Cornell University, calls attention to some
recent experiments which show conclusively that at least one kind of
insects (flies) have a range of vision in the ultra-violet, just as
we have in the visible spectrum. It was also made “perfectly evident
that flowers do have their characteristic ultra-violet radiations”
(_Science_, March 26, 1926, page 325). It is due “to our own egotism
that we call the insect color-blind.”
A given type of insect might in reality be visiting flowers of the
same color as far as it was concerned, while to us it appeared to
be visiting flowers of all colors. “Might not two flowers, one red
and one blue, both give out the same group of wave lengths in the
ultra-violet, and thus be identical in color to an insect seeing only
the ultra-violet? Moreover, what is to prevent two different kinds of
red flowers from giving out two entirely different sets of wave lengths
in the ultra-violet, and thus appearing to have entirely different
colors to an insect?”
In a very real sense, science is only at the beginning of the
discoveries it will yet make in its investigations of the nature and
action of ultra-violet, cathode and X-rays.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] It is interesting to note in this connection that Kuzelmass and
McQuarrie have suggested that oxidation of cod liver oil gives rise to
ultra-violet radiation. (See _Science_, September 19, 1924.)
[4] Paper read before the 66th meeting of the American Chemical
Society, held in Milwaukee, Wis., September 10th to 14th, 1923.
[5] Dr. Harriette Chick and her co-workers of the Vienna University
Child Clinic discovered, first, that the action of cod liver oil on
the bone-lesions of rickets has an exact parallel in that of the
ultra-violet rays of sunlight, or of the rays from a mercury-vapor
quartz lamp; and, second, that the oil and the rays were effective
substitutes the one for the other. See my _Man’s Debt to the Sun_,
Little Blue Book No. 808, page 49.
[6] The only creature that has porphyrin as part of its normal
body-covering is a tropical bird called the touraco, parts of whose
feathers are dyed a brilliant red by a porphyrin-copper compound known
as turacin. This pigment is remarkable also because it seems to be the
only normal occurrence of copper as a coloring compound in feathers or
skin. Turacin is soluble in weak alkali, so that when it rains and the
bird comes into contact with such alkaline solutes as frequently occur
in nature, the turacin bleaches out! Although porphyrin is rare as a
normal coloring in adult animals, it is the commonest pigment found in
the shells of birds’ eggs. Almost all eggs, from the hen’s brown to the
robin’s blue, contain it.
[7] The length of the very short X-rays was accurately determined by a
new method developed by Compton and Doan in 1925, and was found to be
about three billionths of an inch.
Transcriber’s Notes
pg 19 Changed: In March, 1923, Dr. I. Seth Hirsh
to: In March, 1923, Dr. I. Seth Hirsch
pg 42 Changed: unable to refer to their soure
to: unable to refer to their source
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