ination. Among the other kinds of matter which these
rays penetrate with ease is 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 study. The
relation of the new rays to thought rays is being eagerly discussed in
what may be called the non-exact circles and journals; and all that
numerous group of inquirers into the occult, the believers in
clairvoyance, spiritualism, telepathy, and kindred orders of alleged
phenomena, are confident of finding in the new force long-sought facts
in proof of their claims. Professor Neusser in Vienna has photographed
gallstones in the liver of one patient (the stone showing snow-white in
the negative), and a stone in the bladder of another patient. His
results so far induce him to announce that all the