File:The Röntgen rays in medical work (1899) (14570223140).jpg

Identifier: rntgenraysinmedi00wals (find matches)
Title: The Röntgen rays in medical work
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Walsh, David
Subjects: X-rays Radiography X-Rays Radiography
Publisher: London : Baillière, Tindall and Cox
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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d to be in the wound, which hadbeen explored before the patient cameto the hospital. On admission thewound was found to be cicatrized, andthe end-joint of the finger stiff. The ac-companying radiogram (Fig. 31) provedthe absence of glass, but disclosedvarious changes in the joint. Absorp-tion of the distal end of the secondphalanx had taken place, and fibrousanchylosis was diagnosed from (a) theappearance on the photograph of a faintline between the phalanges, and (b) theclinical condition of the joint. Lead is exceedingly opaque to therays, and hence the new method doesyeomans service in gunshot wounds.The erratic course taken by bullets afterentering the body often renders theirdiscovery, under the conditions of ordinary surgery, a matter ofimpossibility. By means of a Eontgen ray examination, how-ever, the surgeon may in many cases acquaint himself as to theexact whereabouts of the missile, and that without undressingthe patient and without taking off splints and dressings. In that
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Fig. 31.—Finger show-ing Absorption ofBone and FibrousAnchylosis. 80 THE RONTGEN RAYS IN MEDICAL WORK event, moreover, the shock entailed by prolonged manipulationwill be avoided. The Eontgen method may also be of service inthis class of wounds by proving the absence of a bullet. Indoubtful cases the value of such negative evidence, both to thesurgeon and to the patient, is so obvious that it need not beenlarged upon. The difficulty of gaining exact evidence as to the presence of arifle-bullet was well illustrated in the classical case of Garibaldi.Day after day his medical attendants, surgeons of Europeanfame, endeavoured in vain to find out whether a ball was or wasnot embedded in the ankle of their illustrious patient. At lengthNelaton settled the point by means of the ingenious probe thatbears his name, an instrument tipped with porcelain, on whichthe leaden bullet traced an unmistakable billet. Eontgen, how-ever, has far surpassed Nelatons plan as regards ease, certainty,and si

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