Injurious Effects of the Roentgen Rays Page 3

with only beneficial results, the skin may be reddened for a few hours immediately following the exposure, but no delayed impairment need be anticipated.

Insulating the body of the patient exposed to the x-rays, lessens his electrical transmissibility, and hence, decreases the danger.

Untoward results are in inverse ratio to the distance from the excited tube, the time of exposure and the efficiency of the apparatus - in other words the Crookes' tube, like the red hot stove, will not burn us unless we are brought into too close relationship therewith, but unlike the stove the excited tube will not warn us of its destructiveness and such manifestations are not immediate but delayed.

X-RAYS AND LUPUS. - It is reported from Vienna that Dr. Schiff has successfully treated cases of lupus vulgaris by means of the x-rays. His process is to set up an independent inflammation in the lupoid area by exposing the part to a very intense radiation. So far, investigations into the germicidal effects of the x-rays have gone to show that their activity in this respect is not greater than that of ordinary light. But Dr. Schiff's result is not a germicidal one, and we know that inflammation, and even necrosis may result from exposure in certain cases, although we do not know the determining factor which leads to injury in some cases but not in others under apparently similar conditions. It is not, however, altogether improbable that Dr. Schiff's results may be due to a direct germicidal action of the x-rays on the tubercle-bacillus. Light, we know, is deleterious to this organism, and Dr. Finsen, of Copenhagen has reported cases of cure in lupus by protracted exposure to concentrated light, so arranged that the ultra-violet rays predominated. - British Medical Journal.

THE CAUSE OF THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY EXPOSURE TO THE ROENTGEN RAYS

BY ALFRED C. PRENTICE, A. M., NEW YORK.

When Dr. Wm. Konrad Roentgen discovered the x-rays he gave them this name because he did not know what they were, and the algebraic sign for an unknown quantity aptly signified his limited knowledge of their nature. It is significant that the name is still applicable. Dr. Roentgen's first reports were published in January, 1895, since which time scientists have eagerly crowded into this field of discovery. Much has been learned of the phenomena exhibited by the x-rays, but many difficult questions remain unanswered as yet by scientific facts. Very like the phenomena of electricity itself, the exact nature of which is still an enigma, the results produced by that form of electrical discharge in the vacuum tube, viz., the cathode rays and the x-rays, have found many new and varied applications in practical science, while many conflicting theories attempt to explain their action. Nor is the evidence brought forward as yet conclusive as to their exact nature.

The most important use of the x-rays is in medical and surgical diagnosis, but this has been involved with troublesome results in some cases. From their early use, and even now occasionally, there has followed a severe lesion at first apparently of the skin, but later involving the deep tissues as well. The constitutional disturbances have been most severe, and the process of healing is always protracted and exceedingly painful. Although cases of the "x-ray burns" so-called have become less frequent, and of the patients exposed to the rays, probably only a small fraction of one per cent experience any such results, nevertheless the uniform severity of the lesion and its obstinacy in healing can not but