OCR Text |
Show If i LIVER AND X BAYS. T i, i Roentgen's Discovery Uaolesa Whoro That Orffan 13 Involvod. I Such In tho Result Reached In tho Ex- L " porlmonU of Deputy Snrj;coif-Uonoril f ' Forwooil, of tho United I Slate Army ', If a man should have the misforflune ; ' to receive a shot In the liver it would remain there unless found by the an- i dent method of proho and' knife. X rays, lloentgcn'8 process, aided by the , appliances devised l'y all the electrical .scientists of the uo, are powerless against the texture of tho liver. Practically Prac-tically every other portion of the human anatomy will yield to the penetrating: 'power of the tluorescope, but that liver declines to do anything of the hind. At least this is the decision reached by V)v. William If. Forwooil, of the United States army, lie declares that lie has been unable to 16cnte anything; I in or bohind the liver when the rays ' isre sent upon the body from the front. ' They will not penetrate that organ. v Dr. Forwooil is officially known as ' lieutenant colonel and deputy surgeon ' general. Ik is on station at headquarters headquar-ters in Washington nnd the duties of , liis office leave him considerable leisur I time. This time he has used for many ,' years in the study of applied sciences i in the practice of his profession. lie is noted in the medical world as an experimentalist, ex-perimentalist, and has produced some i . ' results winch have overturned precon ceived ideas. As a medical officer of ly the army, and a ranking one nt that, ' ' lie has the facilities at hand or nttaina- ble for anything which will assist in making experiments. As soon as Prof. loentgn made his discovery known, , Dr. Forwood began his experiments. JIo secured all the appliances by requisition, requis-ition, "for the good of the service," and t ' established a Crookes tube laboratory unexcelled in the country. J Then he commenced his experiments. lie photographed his orderly from every I possible standpoint, causing hat iw'- ful, but somewhat sensitive man to feel a strong desire to get out of the service. He practiced on the hospital corps, and induced many of those who arc attached to the general headquarters I i , in the capital city to submit them- I selves to the influence of the rays. He ! I . assembled all of his pictures, but he never touched a liver. Then he went i ' jjuniiing for livers, but so far has not i ' been able to land one. Dr. Forwood was a member c( the army retiring board which adjourned ' Fridaj' morning after holding sessions , for several weeks at Gen. Merriti's headquarter in the Pullman bu'ldii.g. "i He is an enthu.-.ia?t in medical matters, and especially X rays. It is said that he wanted to photograph the alleged disability of every otlicer who appeared i before the board to be examined for t ' " t t retirement. If they were all right the 1 " , ' rays would show it. Hut somebody suggested that one of the officers suffered suf-fered from chronic biliary derange--. ment. '.i s "Oh, well," said the deputy surgcon- ' general, "if that's the matter with him we'll have to try him ia the old way. V " " ' " 1 can't get a liver with the rays." That started the investigation eon- , corning the power of the rays. Several I r r the officers detailed for duty on the I l)oard knew Dr. Forwood'sexporimcntb with the rays, and they asked him to j?rti ,c what ho had done and whnt the "jp reason is that the rays will not pierce f'. . - a liver. The doctor agreed, but prefaced ,,$ his remarks by saying that he knew a no special reason why a liver should resist the rays. Til only knew that it does. 'I have not given it up," he sad, "but it is a singular fact that I cannot get through a. liver. I have, succeeded in drawing everything else, but this bailies me.. The increasing of the power, or voltage, does not help. In some things this does assist. For instance, you can set; through a white man much easier than you con through a negro. When i ilarky' is being experimented on you ' have to increase the power of the in-' in-' stmmcnt in a marked degree. This is due primarily, I suppose, to the pigments pig-ments in the colored man's .skin and the corresponding density of his covering. 1ut this liver business getsme. "Tho annoying nature of this failure ia shown when you figure the number of fellows who get bullets in their livers Bin a battle. It is hard to hit a man in the trunk without Invovlng one or both lobes of the organ. Xow, a wound in the liver may or may not be fatal. It in not necessarily fatal. If the surgeon , goes after the bullet and linds it has ' ,. jwnctrated the liver, as far as I can I see., he will have to trust to luck, cut tho j man wide open, or let the balL alone. It may become encysted in that liver and remain there for ' years, and then the surgeon, if he survives and rela- Uvea do not interfere, may hold a post , mortem and extract it;. - I '. '', "I can find anythlngl want, by cut- i -ting, but whut I am looking for now is ' i 1 ' mil i. -i .., a means of finding-whnfc I "want without with-out using tho knife. If you slash a man sufficiently you enn generally find what it is that iB hurting him, but this new idea when perfected will, or ought to, enable field surgeons to determine whether or not there ia any use of fooling fool-ing with a wounded mnn. But the liver baflles me. I can sec through the lungs nnd bones and any other substance in the body but the liver. "Can you tell whnt is the matter witdi n man who is sick with lung troubles?" "Under the rays the lungs look like lace curtains. You seo some line arabesques, ara-besques, but there is little to tho lay eye to Indicate that any trouble exists. ex-ists. What can anyone tell about the figures In a lace curtain? It takes the most expert workers to toll when a figure is broken. The lungs are bulldcd on similnr lines nnd the exact value of the rays on such ailments is not determined. de-termined. I hope that they will disclose dis-close lesions." Chicago Chronicle. |