"There is one point in the mechanism of the apparatus I would like to call attention to before closing. We have never put aside either the water bottle or the rubber bag as so many have done, and it is to the use of this bag that I attribute much of our success, as it acts as a check, or governor, and evens up the amount of chloroform admistered in a way impossible without its use, since many of the oxygen cylinders are faulty in make at the escape valve, the oxygen being blown out too violently or in too large quantities, thereby vaporizing too much chloroform for the patient to inhale safely. These are the principal points I would call your attention to."

Dr. Robert G. Dock, official anesthetist to the Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia, writes: "I would state that my experience with chloroform and oxygen has been very satisfactory. Have administered it to over two hundred patients (hospital and private) old and young, in fact, patients of every age, some complicated with heart and kidney lesions, alcoholics, cocaine and opium fiends, etc. Following are a few characteristics favoring its use, rather than ether or chloroform used alone: 1. Complete relaxation in about half the time, sometimes less, than with ether. 2. Majority of cases, no stage of excitement. 3. Color of face and lips good, oftentimes rosy. 4. Patients react promptly, often in a very few minutes. 5. Very seldom any nausea or vomiting. If vomiting does occur, it is as a rule late and very severe, but this complication is overbalanced, in my estimation, by the large per cent. of patients who do not vomit at all. My opinion is that chloroform and oxygen in experienced hands, administered by some one having some knowledge of anæsthesia, is as safe as ether and less dangerous than chloroform alone, but in the hands of a careless person it is not as safe as ether, not on account of the combination but because of its quick action."

Dr. J. W. Hassler, ex-anæsthetist to the Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia, says: "In regard to chloroform and oxygen I have nothing but praises. In comparing a number of cases I have found it superior in every state of anesthesia. Chief among its superior points are: 1. Cases are anesthetized very quickly. 2. Nine-tenths of the cases pass from the first stages without manifesting a secondary stage. 3. There is less vomiting. 4. Superior in cases of alcoholism. 5. Return to consciousness very rapid."

Dr. E. E. Snyder, Binghamton, N. Y., writes as follows: "My experience with chloroform and oxygen is somewhat limited, but it is sufficient to make me think very highly of it. Some of its advantages seem to be: It acts more promptly; it is safer; the vital functions of the body are maintained better; patients recover from

its effects more quickly and there is much less unpleasant after-effect than from other anæsthetics."

Dr. T. S. Turner, Binghamton, N. Y., writes: "I have been using the Northrop apparatus for administering chloroform and oxygen at the Sanitarium and thus far bespeak much for its future. The vapor seems agreeable, the action is quicker, the patient comes out of its influence quicker and with less prostration. Whether or not it will prevent the after-effects of nausea I am unable to tell at present, as we are particular in preparing our patients and have been troubled much less than formerly."

Dr. E. M. Howard, Camden, N. J., says: "I have used chloroform and oxygen at the Homoeopathic Hospital, Camden, for more than a year without any accidents or untoward results. There is no doubt but that it is the most pleasant anæsthetic for the patient. There is not nearly so much nausea or vomiting as after ether. The patient awakes much quicker and so the period of anesthesia is shortened. Notwithstanding all this I still have a fear of the treacherous character of chloroform, and believe its use must be carefully guarded and that it should always be given by skilled persons, with every appliance at hand for prompt treatment of possible accidents. It seems to me it should be selected for the old and feeble and for children, as well as for all cases having diseased kidneys. In private practice I believe nebulized ether is probably the safest ; it certainly is a great improvement on the old way of etherizing."

Dr. Arthur A. Law, (Allopathist) Minneapolis, in reply to the note of inquiry, sends a five-column article written by him and entitled: "The Administration of Oxygen with Anæsthetics," published in the Northwestern Lancet, June 15, 1896. Dr. Law endorses the use of chloroform and oxygen, quotes freely from my first papers on this subject, and states that chloroform and oxygen is advocated especially by Drs. Noble, Montgomery, Kirkpatrick and Keen, (all Allopathists) of Philadelphia.

Dr. M. O. Terry, Utica, N. Y., replies as follows: "Dr. J. de Vello Moore has given chloroform and ether for me for about eighteen years. Without the Junker inhaler I have always been rather timid in regard to chloroform, as I have had some disagreeable experiences with it. The oxygen acts beautifully, and except in an occasional case of idiosyncrasy I use the chloroform and oxygen altogether. The cylinder connected with the Northrop apparatus does not last long enough for my use in the hospital. I get a Walton tank, which will last for ten cases; the small one lasts for three or four only. The beauty of the oxygen is that your patient gets a full

pulse and keeps a good color. If the patient should get in bad shape, give the oxygen alone, passing the gas through water. Then return to the chloroform again. I am never sure just what anæsthetic I shall use, and I change with a substantial warning always. Respecting the apparatus, it will do well in most of the cases-say nine-tenths of them-and it is very satisfactory. I certainly feel grateful to Dr. Northrop for his investigations and for the success of this new method of using a dangerous anææsthetic, making it exceedingly safe, and doing away with nearly all fear on my part."

This completes the replies received and I submit them to the Homœopathic Medical Society of the State of New York without comment. Only one request remains unanswered, that of Dr. Montgomery's assistant, and Dr. Law makes sufficient reference to him in his Lancet article.

I deeply regret that as the eleventh hour approaches I find it impossible for me to throw off professional burdens and attend the Rochester meeting of your Society. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to anæsthetize a subject before you, and to listen to your criticism of the method herein advocated.

THE ROENTGEN RAYS IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY.*

W

BY F. PARK LEWIS, M. D.

Buffalo, N. Y.

HEN the fascinating narrator of the Arabian Night's Tales unwisely was prevailed upon by her Sovereign to add a thousand and second to those already told, she brought her hero into a country in which the water was solid, and men walked upon it, while the air was navigated by those who were borne aloft by huge red balls. Animals were seen that were fed black sand and masses of iron, and when they were teased by fire, they disgorged the thing which they had swallowed killing men and sinking ships many miles away. These and many more facts of occidental creation were poured in the suspicious monarch's ear, who, growing more and more angry that his credulity could be so imposed upon, at last leaped from his couch that he might immediately order the bow-string as a reward of such mendacity. Sinbad and the Roc he could accept, but the marvels of a common knowledge were too wonderful for his understanding.

When the cable conveyed to us the nature of Roentgen's discovery, it seemed so startling as to almost pass belief. But it is not, *Read before the American Institute of Homoeopathy, at Detroit, June, 1896.

in fact, essentially more incredible than are many of the facts of daily observation. It is not more wonderful that visual impressions can be carried through wood or brick, or stone, or the human body, than that we can see at all.

We do not understand to-day, why molecular vibrations in the hypothetical ether excite physiological reactions in the rods and cones of the retina, which are carried through the optic nerve fibrillæ, and which, in the visual centers of the brain, in turn through a psychological transformation, give the idea of the object looked at. Our habits of thought modify our ideas of things. "If the stars, says Emerson, "should appear but one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore?" But the stars, with all the multiplied interest that astronomy has given to them shine constantly down upon us, until in our petty struggles among lesser things we scarcely take the time to raise our eyes to them. Light, like the air that we breathe, is such a common necessity, that we forget that it is subject to analysis, and that it is found to possess properties of which we perhaps have never dreamed. Almost all of the great discoveries in Natural Law have been made by simple means, and it is only necessary that the ready, alert mind be there to grasp and apply the principle as it was made manifest, and the great wonders of the world have stood out ready for man's use. To understand practically the possibilities of the Roentgen Radiance, its relation to that other form of molecular motion manifested as Light must be recalled.

When by sifting light through a prism, the wave lengths were so modified as to produce a visible spectrum, much was already accomplished; but what we see of the spectrum constitutes an exceedingly small portion of that which we know to exist. Professor S. P. Langley, of the Smithsonian Institute, by means of an ingenious instrument which he devised and called the bolometer, demonstrated the fact, that below the red were rays which could be accurately defined and charted, and were found to be in extent fourteen times the length of the entire visible spectrum. The application of the bolometer is based upon the principle that the electrical conductivity of a wire is modified by the alterations in temperature. "It consists," says J. Mount Bleyer, "of a series of plates of metal connected with a battery and galvanometer, to the latter being attached a very minute concave mirror, on which is thrown a narrow pencil of light. When the spectrum falls upon the blackened surface connected with the metal plates, the electric resistance is changed, the galvanometer is deflected, and the spot of light reflected from the

concave mirror which is hung upon a very fine quartz fibre, is received upon a photographic plate. The galvanometer deflections are shown as in the accompanying figure, which is called a bolograph and from which the line spectrum is constructed. The theory upon which this is based, is, that where the infra-red spectrum falls, there is development of heat, but where the Fruaenhofer lines occur there is no heat, and therefore there is a deflection of the spot of light. With the bolometer it is possible to measure a difference of heat of a hundred-thousandth of a degree of Fahrenheit's scale."

It has been for a long time known that rays exist beyond the violet. Indeed these rays have been utilized in photography, and in this direction the invisible spectrum reaches at least nine or ten times as far as that which can be seen; nor does actinism belong wholly to the violet end, for with heat rays alone, objects have been photographed in absolute darkness.

It is not my purpose to consider at this time the nature of these rays, but before speaking of their practical utility I wish to refer to another discovery of almost equal importance, and which has a very direct relevancy in this connection.

Several years ago, Nicola Tesla began a series of experiments with electric currents having an enormously high potential and great frequency of interruption. To obtain such a result special apparatus was required, and this the greatest electrician of modern times obtained in what he termed a disruptive coil.

The greatest possible result that could be obtained by the agency of an ordinary Rhumkorff apparatus fell far short of his necessities. He devised, therefore, an appliance in which the current from one coil was carried to a secondary coil; and the disruption produced by the second break in the continuity, with great frequency of interruption, raised the potential to upward of a hundred thousand volts.

The electric energy in this process, however, became so diffusible that it was impossible that any ordinary insulation in the coils would be sufficient. The entire apparatus was therefore enclosed in a strong hard wood box, the coils being immersed in boiled oil.

The results thus obtained were startling in the extreme. It was found that an entering and return filament was not essential in the exhaust globe to produce light, but that a single filament was sufficient, and this was not itself affected, but a glow of luminous light. pervaded the vacuum, when this remarkable molecular vibration was established. By varying the conditions it was discovered that luminosity could be produced outside of the tube, like St. Elmo fire, that sheets of brilliant light could be made to extend between two