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Show TREATING HEART DISEASE BY X-RAY WHKN the X-rays were discovered discov-ered by Professor Roentgen 'n ISO.!, physicians had a new method of treatment so ustonishlng and so unlike un-like anything that had ever been used ; In treating the human body, that nothing was known as to Its effect on the body or lis place or value in treatment. treat-ment. The first tiling that scientific men saw In this wonderful new ray I was that It penetrated the body as a ray of sunlight goes through glass, and so made the living body trans- I parent, so its first use was almost ex- j clusively for the examination of the body. Later-on It was realized that this powerful light had a distinct effect on some organs and cells and that It might be of value In. treatment as well as examination. Now Ir. R. L. Levy, In Hie Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, suggests that there Is strong reason for believing thut the X-ray, In proper doses, may have a beneficial effect on certain forms of heart disease, aud in cases which heretofore have been supposed to be beyond the reueft of any treatment treat-ment of any kind. Nor Is this so fantastic as might at first appear. We know much more today about heart disease than we did thirty years ago, when the X-ray was discovered. We know that many cases of heart disease are due to an infection In the teeth, the tonsils, the gall bludder or the appendix; that the germs are carried by the blood from the center of infection to the heart, where they lodge In the valves or the lining membrane of the heart and s'.art up a new infection. It is known that the X-ray has a decided effect in many Inflammations and Infectious, killing the germs and reducing the tiitlamnialion. In some infections of the lymph glands and skin X-ray is widely used. In carbuncles and bolls. It Is of great value. Used during the ! Infectious stuge of heart disease, It j is found to shorten the Inflammation and destroy tills Infection. When germs gather on the heart valves they produce little ulcers, which, when they heal, leave, as they do In any part of the body, scar tissue. tis-sue. These scars coutract or shrink I and so pull the. valves out of shape. Such valves will not work properly. This is what causes valvular disease of the heart.. Now it is well known that scars ; anywhere in the body, if exposed to j X-ray, will soften and. stretch and j will gradually disappear. Using this j well-known fact, Doctor Levy be given X-ray treatment In a number j of cases of valvular heart disease with marked Improvement. It Is too early- to say Just what cases can be benefited, but the suggestion sug-gestion Is certainly an Interesting on x |