they do not greatly alter, our views of both
phenomena, is already certain; and beyond this is the opening into
a new and unknown field of physical knowledge, concerning which
speculation is already eager, and experimental investigation already
in hand, in London, Paris, Berlin, and, perhaps, to a greater or less
extent, in every well-equipped physical laboratory in Europe.

This is the present scientific aspect of the discovery. But, unlike
most epoch-making results from laboratories, this discovery is one
which, to a very unusual degree, is within the grasp of the popular
and non-technical imagination. Among the other kinds of matter
which these rays penetrate with ease is the human flesh. That a new
photography has suddenly arisen which can photograph the bones, and,
before long, the organs of the human body; that a light has been found
which can penetrate, so as to make a photographic record, through
everything from a purse or a pocket to the walls of a room or a house,
is news which cannot fail to startle everybody. That the eye of the
physician or surgeon, long baffled by the skin, and vainly seeking
to penetrate the unfortunate darkness of the human body, is now to be
supplemented by a camera, making all the parts of the human body as
visible, in a way, as the exterior, appears certainly to be a greater
blessing to humanity than even the Listerian antiseptic system of
surgery; and its benefits must inevitably be greater than those
conferred by Lister, great as the latter have been. Already, in
the few weeks since Roentgen's announcement, the results of surgical
operations under the new system are growing voluminous. In Berlin, not
only new bone fractures are being immediately photographed, but joined
fractures, as well, in order to examine the results of recent surgical
work. In Vienna, imbedded bullets are being photographed, instead of
being probed for, and extracted with comparative ease. In London, a
wounded sailor, completely paralyzed, whose injury was a mystery, has
been saved by the photographing of an object imbedded in the spine,
which, upon extraction, proved to be a small knife-blade. Operations
for malformations, hitherto obscure, but now clearly revealed by the
new photography, are already becoming common, and are being reported
from all directions. Professor Czermark of Graz has photographed the
living skull, denuded of flesh and hair, and has begun the adaptation
of the new photography to brain s