A Century of X-Rays and Radioactivity in Medicine

With Emphasis on Photographic Records of the Early Years

R.F Mould

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351470087
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicina
• Subtopic: Radiologia, radioterapia e medicina nucleare

A Century of X-Rays and Radioactivity in Medicine: With Emphasis on Photographic Records of the Early Years celebrates three great discoveries-x-rays (1895), radioactivity (1896), and radium (1898)-and recalls the pioneering achievements that founded the new science of radiology and changed the face of medicine forever. Over 700 historical illustrations with full and informative captions are supported by short introductory essays to illuminate the fascinating radiological past in an easy-to-read style.The focus of this book is on the historically more interesting early years of discovery, invention, diagnosis, therapy, dosimetry, risk, and protection. Interspersed with a variety of radiological anecdotes, the photographic record is complemented by archival accounts of the pioneer scientists and physicians and their early patients. In the chapters on diagnostic techniques, radiotherapy, and nuclear medicine, the author contrasts old methods with newer technologies. He also includes two fascinating chapters on museum and industrial applications of radiography. The book is comprehensively indexed for easy retrieval of the wide variety of people, techniques, apparatus, and examples featured throughout this radiological journey.

Chapter 1

Discovery of X-rays

Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen on November 8th 1895 in his laboratory at the Physical Institute of the Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg in Bavaria. At the time Röntgen was investigating the phenomena caused by the passage of an electrical discharge from an induction coil through a partially evacuated glass tube. The tube was covered with black paper and thé whole room was in complete darkness, yet he observed that, elsewhere in the room, a paper screen covered with the fluorescent material barium platinocyanide became illuminated. It did not take him long to discover that not only black paper, but other objects such as a wooden plank, a thick book and metal sheets, were also penetrated by these X-rays. More important though, he found that¹ ‘Strangest of all, while flesh was very transparent, bones were fairly opaque, and interposing his hand between the source of the rays and his bit of luminescent cardboard, he saw the bones of his living hand projected in silhouette upon the screen. The great discovery was made.’

Although Röntgen published 55 scientific papers only three were on the topic of X-rays, none of which included any of his own radiographs. The first, ‘Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen’, communicated on December 28th 1895 and set out in 17 numbered paragraphs, was published in the Sitzungsberichte der Physikalischmedizinischen Gesellschaft zu Würzburg [1.13] and translations, some including radiographs made by other scientists, were soon available in English and in French:

January 23rd 1896 in Nature (London)

February 1896 in a special issue of The Photogram (London) entitled The New Light and the New Photography ‘With many examples of Photography through, “opaque” substances, wood, leather, ebonite, &c., and photography of the skeleton within the living flesh.’

January 24th 1896 in The Electrician (London)

February 8th 1896 in L’Eclair Electricité (Paris)

February 14th 1896 in Science (New York).

On January 1st 1896 Röntgen wrote to scientific colleagues in several countries enclosing some example radiographs, each marked with the stamp ‘Physik Institut der Universität Würzburg’ [1.14– 1.16]. Two of these packages were sent to the United Kingdom, to Lord Kelvin (University of Glasgow) and to Sir Arthur Schuster (University of Manchester) of which only the Schuster set survives, donated by his daughter Dr. Norah Schuster to the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London.

Röntgen’s second communication to the Physikalischmedizinischen Gesellschaft was on March 9th 1896 and was a continuation of the first with additional numbered paragraphs 18–21. His third and final communication on the subject of X-rays, entitled ‘Further observations on the properties of X-rays’ was submitted to the Royal Prussian Academy of Science, Berlin on March 10th 1897 and published in the Annalen der Physik und Chemie. An English translation appeared in the Archives of the Roentgen Ray in February 1899.

His first and only public lecture was delivered on January 23rd 1896 at the Physikalisch-medizinischen Gesellschaft in Würzburg and the demonstration that day was of a radiograph of the hand of the famous anatomist Albert von Kölliker [1.18], who then proposed the term ‘Röntgen rays’ and called for three cheers for Röntgen. The audience cheered again and again.

The most detailed biography of Röntgen was written in 1931 by Otto Glasser¹, who describes the reaction of the world literature: daily press, popular magazines and scientific journals including:

‘Electrical photography through solid bodies’ Electrical Engineer (New York), January 8th 1896

‘Sensational worded story’ The Electrician (London), January 10th 1896

‘Illuminated tissue’ New York Medical Record, January 11th 1896

‘Searchlight of photography’ The Lancet, January 11th 1896

‘Photography of unseen substances’ Literary Digest, January 25th 1896

‘Remarkable discovery: photographing through opaque matter’ Daily Telegraph (Sydney), January 31st 1896.

Not all the responses were favourable, however, and in 1896 the London Pall Mall Gazette stated ‘We are sick of the röntgen rays … you can see other people’s bones with the naked eye, and also see through eight inches of solid wood. On the revolting indecency of this there is no need to dwell.’ Punch magazine referred in a pessimistic poem to ‘grim and graveyard humour’ and X-rays were also linked with vivisection². Such comment could not, however, halt the progress of such a useful medical tool.

Röntgen had previously worked in several universities before moving to Würzburg in 1888, including Strassburg and Giessen, and early in 1895 he had refused the offer of a professorial chair by the University of Freiburg because the government of Baden was unable to fulfil his laboratory equipment requirements. He wanted 11,000 Deutschmarks for several pieces of physical apparatus and improvements for planned experiments. The negotiations with the Government of Baden were short but intensive. When he left Freiburg, he was reported³ to have said at the railway station ‘This small country is doing a lot for the three universities [which were within its borders], but I understand that they cannot spend such a lot of money to offer an appointment to a foreigner [Röntgen was not born in Baden]. The idea to come to Freiburg was a nice dream for both [himself and the university], but could not be realised like many other dreams.’ Instead of Röntgen, the University of Freiburg appointed Franz Himstedt (1852-1933) whose equipment requirements totalled only 1,250 Deutschmarks³. The X-ray fame of Würzburg therefore has an economic aspect and Freiburg had to wait until the summer of 1896 for its first X-ray images, made by the physicist Ludwig Zehnder (see also [3.5]), one of Röntgen’s former students.

Röntgen remained at Würzburg until 1900 when he left to work at the University of Munich. In 1901 he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Physics [1.5] and donated the prize money to the University of Würzburg. On the tenth anniversary of his discovery in 1905 a group of prominent German physicists, including Kohlrausch, Planck and Wien, had a marble plaque placed at the Physical Institute, Würzburg, with the inscription ‘In diesem Häuse entdeckte W. C. Röntgen im Jahre 1895 die nach ihm benannten Strahlen ’ (In this house in 1895 W. C. Röntgen discovered the rays which were named after him)⁴. For many years, though, this large plaque was lost until it was found being used in the Institute as a laboratory table top!

Despite the recognition accorded to Röntgen, there was, even into the 1970s, some debate concerning the contribution towards the discovery of X-rays by other researchers of electricity in high vacua, although Röntgen’s pre-eminence was not challenged. Comroe⁵ in his 1977 book Retrospectroscope which gives insights into medical discoveries (and near-miss discoverers), also rejects the view that the discovery of X-rays happened fortuitously, and is in agreement with Röntgen’s biographer Glasser¹, who posed the question ‘Was Röntgen’s discovery accidental?’ and then gave the answer that it was the final step in a brilliant and logical correlation of a multitude of facts which had been disclosed by many scientists, including Hertz, Lenard, Hittorf and Crookes.

Some insight into the well ordered mind of Röntgen can be found in two quotations he used in his speech in January 1894 when Rector of the University of Würzburg⁶.

‘Nature often reveals astounding marvels in even the most unremarkable things, but they can be recognised only by those who, with sagacity and a mind created for research, ask counsel from experience, the teacher in all things ’ (Athanasius Kircher, born 1602).

‘When a law of nature, hitherto hidden, suddenly emerges from the surrounding fog, when the key, long sought after, to a mechanical combination is found, when the missing link takes its place in a chain of thought, there is the elation of spiritual victory for the discoverer, which by itself alone richly rewards him and lifts him for a brief moment onto a higher plane’ (Werner von Siemens, 1816–1892).

Although Röntgen did not suffer from exposure to X-rays, probably because his experiments were over relatively few years and his X-ray tubes were shielded within metal boxes, he was well aware of the harmful biological effects experienced by other early workers. His warning to British scientists was conveyed by the London instrument manufacturer A. W. Isenthal [13.7] following a meeting with Röntgen in 1898¹³.

‘In April 1898 I was asked by my colleagues on the Council of the Röntgen Society, to arrange, if possible, for an interview with Röntgen at Würzburg University. Obtaining Röntgen’s consent I called on him at his laboratory in the Physical Department, where he explained to me the set-up of his apparatus when he was led to the discovery of a new form of radiation. Röntgen was a very tall man, with a scholarly stoop, his face somewhat pock-marked, stern but kindly, and very modest in his remarks upon his achievement. I felt, of course, greatly elated at being in the presence of this world-renowned scientist. I became even more so...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface to the First Reprint
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Discovery of X-rays: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
• Chapter 2 Discovery of Radioactivity and Radium: Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie
• Chapter 3 Early Days of X-rays and Radium: Diagnosis, Therapy and Experiment
• Chapter 4 Archives of Clinical Skiagraphy: the First Radiological Journal: 1896–1899
• Chapter 5 Gas Tubes: 1895–1913
• Chapter 6 Spark Coils and Interrupters
• Chapter 7 Hot Cathode X-ray Tubes: William Coolidge and Thermionic Emission
• Chapter 8 Military Radiography
• Chapter 9 Animal Radiographs
• Chapter 10 Diagnostic Radiology: I
• Chapter 11 Diagnostic Radiology: II
• Chapter 12 Diagnostic Radiology: III
• Chapter 13 Diagnostic Radiology: IV
• Chapter 14 Diagnostic Radiology: V
• Chapter 15 Diagnostic Radiology: VI
• Chapter 16 Paintings and Museum Artefacts
• Chapter 17 Industrial Applications
• Chapter 18 External Beam Radiotherapy: I
• Chapter 19 External Beam Radiotherapy: II
• Chapter 20 Brachytherapy
• Chapter 21 Nuclear Medicine
• Chapter 22 Radiation Units and Quantities, and Radiation Measurement
• Chapter 23 Radiation Risks and Radiation Protection
• Bibliography: Selected Books for Further Reading
• References: Chapters 1–23
• Index