Rontgen Society

The president of the Röntgen Society and Mrs. Mansell Moullin and the council entertained a large number of scientific gentlemen and their friends at a conversazione at the St. Martin's Town Hall on Monday night. While a most enjoyable programme by the London Concert Orchestra, with a couple of songs by Mr. Fitzroy Sheridan, and an excellent buffet supplied the wants of the inner man, those who wished that "this too solid flesh could melt" had no difficulty in gratifying their desire. In the main hall, which was filled with exhibits, Dr. Hedley presided over the London Hospital outfit, supplied by Isenthal, Potzler, and Co. A small portable dark-room was set up, and this cupboard was well patronised by those who wished to examine their friends skeletons or part of their own. Similar exhibitions were given in a large darkened room by Dr. Pepperdene, and Messrs. Webster, Watson Baker, Coldwell, Cox, and Dean. A number of patients in charge of nurses were similarly examined, under the supervision of Dr. Walsh, assisted by Mr. Fenton and Mr. Isenthal, a case of congenital clavicular malformation being especially easy to discern. Another patient lay on a stretcher in the main hall, and his bones could be distinctly seen by means of the fluoroscope, which consists of a fluorescent screen fitted with bellows like a camera, ending in an eyepiece bound in fur. This permits the exclusion of all extraneous light, and these appliances are very useful in simple cases, as the room need not be darkened during the examination of the patient. The phenomena of the Geissler tubes by Messrs. Corser, Gerard Smith, and Vesey, and the "white magic" by Prof. Silvanus P. Thompson, F.R.S., who demonstrated the action of the Tesla oscillator upon vacuum tubes destitute of electrodes, drew such a large audience that it was almost impossible to get near. Mr. Harry W. Cox showed a large induction coil with his new type of contact-breaker. The coil required about six amperes and twelve volts when giving a 19in. spark. Mr. Isenthal had an apparatus fitted with double bulbs. These tubes consist of a very large bulb, about double the size hitherto used. The tube is continued vertically, then another bulb, about a quarter of the size, and a small sideward branch with another anode in it, is added. The advantage claimed for this arrangement is that a continuous supply of X-rays is produced without the necessity of heating the bulb every now and then, and that the current required is very low. A large selection of X-ray photographs lined the room, and we should suggest that another time the tablets should bear more definite inscriptions. It is rather puzzling at first to come across a female skeleton, and to read: "Mr. A--- B---," this being presumably the name of the exhibitor, and not of the exhibit.