McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896Various
General
McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 6, May, 1896
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
Possibly before long we shall be able to determine also the presence or
absence of solid foreign bodies in the larynx or windpipe. Every now and
then, patients, especially children, get into the windpipe jack-stones,
small tin toys, nails, pins, needles, etc., foreign bodies which may
menace life very seriously. To locate them exactly is very difficult.
The X rays may here be a great help. An attempt has been made by Rowland
and Waggett. to skiagraph such foreign bodies, with encouraging results.
Improvements in our methods will, I think, undoubtedly lead to a
favorable use of the method in these instances. Beans, peas, wooden
toys, and similar foreign bodies, being easily permeable to the rays,
will not probably be discovered.
If our methods improve so that we can skiagraph through the entire body,
it will be very possible to determine the presence and location of
foreign bodies in the stomach and intestines. A large number of cases
are on record in which plates with artificial teeth, knives, forks,
coins, and other such bodies have been swallowed; and the surgeon is
often doubtful, especially if they are small, whether they have remained
in the stomach, or have passed into the intestines, or entirely escaped
from the body. In these cases, too, a caution should be uttered as to
the occasional inadvisability of operating, even should they be located,
for if small they will probably escape without doing any harm. But it
may be possible to look at them from day to day and determine whether or
not they are passing safely through the intestinal canal, or have been
arrested, at any point, and, therefore, whether the surgeon should
interfere. The man who had swallowed a fork which remained in his
stomach (_l'homme a la fourchette_, as he was dubbed in Paris) was
a noted patient, and would have proved an excellent subject for a
skiagraph, had the method then existed.
As sunlight is known to be the foe of bacteria, the hope has been
expressed that the new rays might be a means of destroying the microbes
of consumption and other diseases in the living body. Delépine, Park,
and others have investigated this with a good deal of care. A dozen
different varieties of bacteria have been exposed to the Röntgen rays
for over an hour, but cultures made from the tubes after this exposure
have shown not only that they were not destroyed, but possibly they were
more vigorous than before.
The facts above stated seem to warrant the following conclusions as to
the present value of the method:
_First_.--That deformities, injuries, and diseases of bone can be
readily and accurately diagnosticated by the Röntgen rays; but that the
method at present is limited in its use to the thinner parts of the
body, especially to the hands, forearms, and feet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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