X-Ray Experts See Through Aucklanders

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 772, 19 September 1929, Page 7

X-Ray Experts See Through Aucklanders

Motor-Cyclists Are All Prospective Customers FOOTBALLERS PROVIDE WORK It is useless to practise deceit on the X-ray experts at the Auckland Public Hospital. Their vocation enables them to see through anything or anybody. When Mr. John Citizen, careering down Queen Street on his nice new motor-cycle collides with a tram-pole and comes off second best, he is bundled into an ambulance and hurried off to the X-ray department of the hospital. There, he is taken in hand by the X-ray technicians, who photograph his bones to see what the damage is. The result is that Mr. John Citizen is scientifically mended and turned loose again in the shortest possible time to’ ride his beloved motor-cycle. UP-TO-DATE PLANT The Auckland Public Hospital has the distinction of possessing the most up-to-date X-ray plant iu the Southern Hemisphere. Not even that jealous sister city, Sydney, can compete. All the latest appliances are possessed by the Institution, and it would be an elusive trouble indeed that could escape the searching glance of the mysterious X-rays. It Is the duty of the technicians to “know how” when it comes to taking photographs. This department is under the control of Mr. J.

L. Campbell, who Is assisted by Messrs. W. A. Treacher and W. J. Baird. When patients are photographed for troubles these experts turn the plates over to the staff radiologists, whose duty it is to diagnose the trouble. The business is growing, too. Last year, 9,811 feet of films were used for 5,915 cases, an increase of 1,000 cases over the previous year. On some plates two photographs were taken, bringing the total number of “snaps” up to about 15,000. GOOD CUSTOMERS Motor-cyclists are good business for the X-ray men. Every rider of a “speed-box” is considered a prospective customer for the “ray” men, and I the average of motor-cyclists mounts j rapidly. And football. This class of work has increased so much that the department has had to be kept open on Saturday afternoons to handle the embryo All Blacks. Which is the roughest game? According to the X-ray men, there is not much difference. Soccer, League or Rugby—the chances of injury are just about equal, says the department. The film used for taking photographs is all British. It is made of specially thick gelatine and coated with emulsion on both sides, and gives double speed for photographs. In taking photographs the patient is laid out on a table and the rays are thrown down from above through his body and on to the plate. The operation is very quick and simple. In photographing the skull for a fracture, pictures are taken from five different positions, and it is considered to be practically impossible to miss the slightest fracture. The power of penetration required for each patient varies considerably. Naturally, there is a big difference between the requirements for a 16-stone man and a small child. But the X-ray men know. They have been doing it so long that it has become an instinct to gauge what power will be required. Gall-bladders, stomachs and various other organs, can also be photographed. With the gall bladder the patient is given an emulsion that makes the organ opaque enough to register on the plate. In the case of the stomach It is distended and coloured in a similar way and the plate shows plainly what the trouble is. APPENDICES WITH SHOT “We have often seen the appendices filled with shot as the result of eating game,” said Mr. Campbell. “Sometimes the appendix is not visible, however.” Anyone who has what is thought to be an Old Master, can very easily verify it. The X-rays never lie. The old painters used mineral oils, which register on an X-ray plate. The moderns use vegetable oils which do not register. Mr. Campbell showed The Sun man an X-ray photograph he had taken which disproved the genuineness of a portrait possessed by a local woman. The fact that it had been painted over later was clearly discernible on the X-rays photograph. “This is considered an infallible test in dealing with paintings in the Old Country,” said Mr. Campbell. The hospital possesses a portable Xray set and Mr. Campbell has been as far south as Taumarunui with it. It can be used wherever there is electric power, and has been in many private homes and hospitals in Auck- | land. Stereoscopic views of the body can also be taken, showing each part distinct from its fellows. Cases of consumption are often shown by the cloudy discoloration on the plate. | Every part of the body is different and j requires a different exposure, so that

the judgment of the operator is always being called into use. With improvements introduced by the manufacturers of X-ray apparatus, the danger from the rays is being constantly lessened, and the days of martyrdom to the study of the science are almost past. INCREASE IN CASES As far as Auckland is concerned the first three months of the year show a marked increase in the number of cases handled, January being the best month of all —or the worst month of all, from the point of view of the patients. “X-ray photography is being improved so quickly that any man who dropped out three years ago and started to take it up now would be hopelessly out of date,” Mr. Campbell remarked.