Injurious Effects of the Roentgen Rays Page 5

period of seventy minutes at a distance of one inch.

In this exposure, although neither the pig nor table came in contact with the electrical apparatus, both became so strongly electrified that a spark was produced between the edge of the table and my finger held near; and the pig started and squirmed when I touched her, as if pricked with a pin, while I could feel the pricking sensations at the tips of my fingers, on touching her body. By the end of the week from the time of this exposure, there appeared on the clipped area two or three dry vesicles of exfoliating epidermis. The lesion gradually grew deeper and continually worse, until at the end of the second week the animal was very ill, showing marked constitutional symptoms of fever and depression. Examination revealed a characteristic "x-ray burn." The skin had vesiculated and peeled off in flakes, leaving a pale, raw surface, moistened with serous exudation. Not much, if any, inflammation was evident, but the lesion was quite sensitive and apparently very painful. Only the small area which had been clipped was at first affected, but the injury rapidly extended, and on the night after the fifteenth day following the exposure the pig died.

On picking up the body by the fur at the back of the neck, a large bunch came out, permitting the body to fall. Body was dissected and portions were reserved for histological examination. The following is Dr. Ward's report:

Examination of Injury to Thoracic Wall of Guinea Pig Due to Prolonged Exposure to Action of X-Rays.

"Macroscopical. - Over a circular area of about four c. m. in diameter the hair and skin had been removed and the exposed surface was parched, the subcutaneous tissue and thoracic muscles feeling as though they were partially dried to the underlying ribs.

Microscopical. - Portion for examination taken through the seat of injury and including entire thickness of thoracic wall. Fixed in formalin five per cent; alcohol, ninety-seven per cent. Decalcified in acid. Imbedded in celloidin. Stained with Gage's haemotoxylin and alcoholic eosin. The skin and subcutaneous tissue had all disappeared. In the central portion the superficial layers of muscles did not stain. No striations were visible. The blood-vessels were shrunken and contained very little blood. Approaching the margin, the staining of the specimen improved, striations and cell nuclei of the connective tissue were visible. The deep, muscular layers of the central portion were slightly stained with eosin, and the nuclei took on a pale-purple color, but in neither case was the staining that of normal muscle. At the edge of the affected area, about blood-vessels and between muscles, there was a moderate amount of infiltration of small, round cells.

Anatomical diagnosis is that all the structures at the site of the injury have lost their vitality and have become dried. In the closely adjacent parts there is a very moderate amount of inflammation."

The sensation of drowsiness has been mentioned by other writers as following an exposure to x-rays. The statement of Professor J. J. Thomson that "all bodies traversed by Roentgen radiations become conductors of electricity" is perhaps a hint. It is supported by Professors Trowbridge and Burbank. (2) We know that twice were the animal and table charged in our experiments. Tesla states (3) that "by means of an enormous potential and high frequency, the tube was surrounded by a violet luminosity or halo," and that "Lenard also obtained a similar phenomenon in front of the aluminum window."

Mr. Rollin states (4) that the burning from vacuum tubes not generating x-rays may be severe, the tube being exhausted to such a degree that no Roentgen light could be produced with the voltage used.

Professor Thomson, of Harvard, demonstrates (5) by experiments upon himself that if the x-rays are ether vibrations of great rapidity, known as ultra-violet light, as we are now led to believe, they could not have produced the "burn" which he induced upon his finger by exposing at one and one-half inches distance from a vacuum tube of blue glass