Injurious Effects of the Roentgen Rays Page 8

of a burn is "an injury produced by the action of too great heat." It is also useful to note that ichthyol usually gives relief from pain in an ordinary burn, but Dr. Tuttle (18) found that it aggravated the pain of an x-ray injury. Cold water also proves soothing to burns, but in this case it was found the pain increased when moist dressings were applied of a temperature lower than 85 deg. Fahrenheit. Also, in certain cases, where skin grafting had been employed, the severe neuralgic pain still persisted after the part had healed.

It may not be improbable that electrical energy attacking the tissues is transformed into another form of energy than heat, as perhaps electrolysis of chemical substances. Dr. Bardeen (19) regards it justifiable to consider that one of the main causes of death after burns (ordinary) is to be sought in a toxaemia caused by alterations in the blood and tissues, the direct effect of the elevation of temperature; "a view which is further strengthened by chemical evidences and the experimental work of Kijanitzen and others." Since the pathological condition of the tissues in the "x-ray burn" correspond very nearly to, only are worse than those of a severe burn produced by heat, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that similar chemical alterations and decompositions might be produced by electrical energy or electrolysis as are supposed to be produced by mere action of heat. Tesla hinted at this phase of the question in speaking of the decomposition of the sodium chloride.

It is well known that the static discharge in air produces ozone in a more or less considerable amount. The fact that a sufficient amount to detect by the odor is often produced and inhaled with impunity to the mucus lining of the respiratory passages would cast some discredit on the theory that it might irritate a warm and moist skin.

Tesla has demonstrated, however, that metallic particles of the anticathode do become deposited upon the inside of the tube, by breaking the tube and analyzing the deposit noticed. This deposit is especially noticeable in the tubes that have been in use for some time and at so high tension as to render the anticathode red or white hot. But whether these particles could penetrate the tube and enter the tissues to produce irritation as foreign bodies, is another question.

In order to test this matter, I exposed to the rays of maximum brilliancy four photographic plates superposed, so that if the metallic particles should strike the sensitive film or even pass through it, and one or more of the four glass plates and gelatine films, just as in human tissues Tesla supposed them to do, they would be apt to lodge, some of them at least, in one or more of the films. The exposure in this case was timed and adjusted exactly as in the last exposure of the guinea pig, viz., for seventy minutes at a distance of one inch. If the metallic particles caused the lesion which developed a week later in the case of the pig, they would certainly be deposited in the films of the plates. I therefore removed all the films, after having dissolved out the unchanged silver-salt in a solution of hyposulphite of sodium, and evaporated to dryness. Reduced the residue to an ash which was then digested in aqua regia (HCL, 3 parts to HN O₃ 1 part, concentrated), forming from any metallic platinum present, soluble platinic chloride, PtCl₄. I then treated this solution with stannous chloride, SNCl₂, which reduces platinic salts to platinous salts. The latter are soluble in dilute hydrochloric acid, (HCI) giving a characteristic deep cherry red colored solution. I accordingly added HCl, but no color reaction took place. At the same time, for a check test, I dissolved in 10 c.c. of water two or three small granules of potassium, chloroplatinite,