Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/570

 �Moving X-Ray Pictures

See your joints move and your heart beat on the screen

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��This fracture is frequently un- known to the pa- tient. He rubs it — and walks lame for good

��OTION radiography, a subject of intense intere t, both to the pro- f essiona 1

��world and to the lai- ty, has been unsuc- cessfully attempted for the past eight years. Scientists, with the aid of the fluoroscope, have been able to see the inner working of the human body. The fluoroscope is a fluo- rescent screen hav- ing a hood for the protection of the physician's eyes. With this instru- ment it is possible

���Using X-rays to locate a fracture of the forearm. The rays can penetrate a wall

��to see the shadows

��cast by objects in the path of the X-ray.

Dr. E. L. Crusius of New York city, after months of experimenting has accom- plished motion radiography to the extent of showing the joints in motion. He is now experimenting to show the pul- sations of the heart, the pe- culiar wave-like motion of the stomach in digestion, the ex- pansion of the lungs in breath- ing and other organic motions in the human body.

Dr. Crusius hopes to be able to give his findings to the Government within a short time. Now that the X-ray has entered the motion picture world, the general j)ublic will be able to see how great an assistance the X-ray can be lo the physician. This is es-

���Scction of mo- tion-picture film of a radiograph

��pecially true in surgical work in the army for tracing bullets and locating fractures. As an example of the benefit to be de- rived from an X-ray examination, take the case of a fiacture which is very common. This, fracture is generally

caused by dropping a heavy object on the foot. The injured person usually binds up the foot after rubbing on some lini- ment. That one f the delicate bones may be broken never occurs to him. The result of this is that the bone grows together in an ab- normal position, so that all the rest of his life the owner of the foot experiences difficulty in walk- ing. An X-ray would have revealed the fracture, the bone could have been set in the proper position and in a short time the patient would have been as well as ever. The X-ray machine used by Dr. Crusius in his work generates five hun- dred thousand volts. The rays are exceedingly powerful, in fact they can penetrate a six- foot stone wall.

The exploration of one's anatomy by the X-ray is ac- complished without any more pain or unpleasant after effects than would be experienced in having a photographer take an ordinary, look-pleasant-please photograph. As the X-ray is a straight ray and cannot be turned or deflected in any way, the great difficulty in making motion radiographs has been to get a screen placed between the X-ray and the camera that would not fog the film and at the same time would show the image. Dr. Crusius has accomplished this.

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