JOURNAL DE PHYSIOTHERAPIE. 1. X-Rays and Constipation-Dr. E. Albert Weil. 2. On a Case of Epithelioma of the Temporo-Frontal Region Cured by The Application of The X-RaysMM. Ch. Monod and Bouchet. 3. Note on The Mechanical Treatment of Oedemas-Dr. Charles Columbo. 4. Pelvic Pains-Docteur Rene de Langenhagen. The analgesic and decongesting effects of X-Rays are well known to-day, also their action in suppressing neuralgias and cramps, and in resolving oedemas. These facts have let the author to recommend the X-Ray treatment of constipation. His mode of action has been as follows: Using a Rochefort transformer, a Driessler tube, and a localizing apparatus bearing a guard cylinder, he submits to radiotherapy circular cutaneous areas five centimeters in diameter situated below a horizontal line passed through the umbilicus. In general the exposures have been made on the skin situated in the iliac fossa. The maximum number of rays compatible with the integrity of the skin were used from 4.... to 41⁄2 Rays marked 6 or 7 according to the radiochrometer of Benoist were employed. Gratifying results were obtained even as early as the first exposure. In one of the most typical cases, a woman with a large fibroma, there was a daily stool after an exposure to 5 rays, when hitherto the most violent purgatives and enemas gave negative or absolutely insignificant results. The same happy results have been obtained in young women free from all genital lesions but subject to chronic constipation, nervous in origin. After the second treatment the stools were spontaneous. The action of the X-Rays is probably on the abdominal nerve plexuses. 2. .... Patient, aged 53, presented last March. Malady began ten years ago as a small wart, increasing from year to year. In August, 1903, it began to ulcerate and since then has grown rapidly. The ulcerated portion is larger than a fivefranc piece, is firmly attached to the periosteum beneath, and is the seat of frequent spontaneous hemorrhages. The neighboring glands are enlarged. The diagnosis of cutaneous and subcutaneous epithelioma was confirmed by histologic examination. Short repeated exposures of medium intensity were tried. After the first application the hemorrhages ceased. A cicatrical tissue rapidly appeared, and three months after the beginning of treatment a cure seems certain. A second histologic examination showed absence of cancer cells. The writer used a Gaiffe static machine with eight plates, a Chabaud tube and osmoregulator. Exposures were given every two days, 35 in all being given. The treatment began with an exposure of 30 seconds increasing this by 30 seconds each time until exposures of five minutes' duration were reached. This treatment was twice interrupted for eight days following slight burns. A weak tube with a spark equivalent to 4 cm. was used. During the 25 first exposures the tube was placed 5 cm. from the patient, and the intact tissues protected by a plate of lead. Since the 25th exposure the tube has been inclosed in a sort of funnel of glass over lead. This funnel has some openings of different diameters permitting a modification in size of the orifice in proportion to the area treated. The anticathode was held at a distance of 22 cm. from the part exposed. The tube gave rays No. 6 according to the radiochrometer of Benoist. The treatment was un eventful except for some slight burns. The danger of burns increases with the number of plates used. It is better to give short and frequent exposures. This patient received in all exposures amounting to about seventy minutes. Book Reviews. THE SUCCESS OF THE ROENTGENTHERAPY. By Professor Eduard Schiff. Vienna, 1904. Published by Moritz Perles, Vienna, Austria. As Prof. Schiff was the first to introduce the application of X-Rays in the treatment of lupus, he has a right to discuss this first part of his brochure with some authority. After him his assistant, Dr. Freund, used them and then Kuemmel, Gocht and especially Albers-Schoenberg. Schiff gives the histories of 4 additional cases treated in that manner and concludes this part of his work by saying that the success with that therapy in lupus is without doubt. The second part is devoted to the literature and discussion of X-Ray treatment in malignant neoplasms, rodent ulcers, etc. While we cannot agree with the optimistic views laid down in that more elaborate part, we have to admit that even the American reader, whose desk has been flooded with articles on X-Rays will read this booklet with some interest. ROENTGEN RAY DIAGNOSIS AND THERAPY. Professor of Surgery in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital, etc. Octave, Cloth, $4.00. No man has done more to develop the Roentgen ray into a useful and reliable diagnostic agent or to disseminate knowledge of the same than the author of this book, and combining, as he does, with his knowledge of the Roentgen ray an extensive and profound knowledge of the theory and practice of surgery, we should expect a production of unusual merit from his pen. The present volume of 460 pages is fully up to that expectation and constitutes a most valuable addition to the X-Ray literature of the present time. The first section of 64 pages treats of apparatus, technique, general manipulation of the patient, etc.; the second section, containing 295 pages, treats of the diagnostic use of the ray and here the author's genius and art in handling his subject stand forth pre-eminently. Each region of the body and each joint is dealt with separately and variations in technique which are advantageous in the investigation of these different portions of the body are described fully but tersely in the appropriate sections. Clinical reports and numerous illustrations illuminate the text with a degree of lucidity which makes this section one of the best expositions of Roentgen ray diagnosis yet published. The last chapter of this section is upon "The Medico-Legal Aspect of the Roentgen Rays," and sets forth the various errors into which one is likely to fall through faulty technique in making the skiagraph or unskillful interpretation thereof. The third and last section is given up to a brief but comprehensive summary of the physiological and clinical effects upon the body tissue, normal and pathological, and pathogenic microorganisms of the Roentgen rays, radium rays, and the Finsen light, and sets. forth most satisfactorily what is at present known about these subjects. The work will not only be of value to those who are already familiar with the X-Ray but also to those who desire only to become familiar with the general capabilities of this agent. GRAMER'S X-Ray Plates are the favorite plates among Physicians Send for copy of X-Ray Manual, MANUFACTURED BY G. CRAMER DRY PLATE CO., OFFICES IN.... NEW YORK, 93 University Place. SAN FRANCISCO, 819 Market St. ST. LOUIS, MO. FINSEN RA Y Made for any current. Genuine Violet Ray. Highly finished. Mechanically correct. Cautery Transformers Write for Catalogue No. 21. Victor Electric Co. 55-61 Market Street Chicago, Ill. Vol. IV and Radiology November, 1904 Original Contributions. No. II SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE MEDICAL USES OF THE CON- By Daniel R. Brower, A. M., M. D., LL. D. Professor of Nervous and Mental Diseases, Rush Medical College. A study of the current medical literature and of the proceedings of this and kindred societies leads me to the conclusion that the profession is drifting away from the medical uses of the continuous current. This is probably due to the great improvements that have been made in static machines during the last few years, in the discovery of the X-ray, and in the introduction of the high frequency, high potential current. These several agents are so much more convenient to use, and have such a striking effect that we are losing sight of the advantages of the direct and constant current that does its work so quietly. Some of this may be due also to the disappointment that has come to the members of the craft by their using as the source of the continuous current a dynamo rather than chemical action. The current from the dynamo is pulsating; that from the chemical action is steady. And this difference is very important when a very sensitive patient is under treatment. And then, again, the ordinary rheostats used in the physician's office do not reduce amperage and voltage pari passu, and this also gives annoyance to sensitive patients. For cerebral applications especially, it is important that the current should be steady, that it should be of low amperage and of low voltage; but, on the contrary, if the case be one of inflammatory exudates in joints or tendons, for example, there is some clinical advantage in using the pulsating form of the direct continuous current, for a much quicker result can in this way sometimes be attained. Valuable research work has been done recently by Stewart, of England, and by Cleaves, of our own society, on the chemico-physical action of this current, and Dr. Cleaves thus sums up in an admirable series of articles that she is publishing in the Journal of Advanced Therapeutics her results: "The first effect is the chemical effect of the products liberated by the electrodes or in the substance of the tissues. *Read at the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association at St. Louis, Mo. Sept. 13 to 16, 1904, and published in this Journal by special permission of the author and the Executive Council of the Association. |