A century ago, the word “skiagraph” was sometimes used in place of “roentgenograph”, what we now call a radiograph or x-ray image. The idea was that a “photograph” represented light reflected off the surface of the thing being photographed, while a “skiagraph”, from the Greek for “shadow”, represented a silhouette. In a 1904 article(*), Dr. […]
Tag: x-ray
He gave them the finger(s): A “Martyr to X-ray”
The March 25, 1925 issue of the New York Evening Post features this article about Dr. Frederick H. Baetjer, who gave his finger — actually eight of his fingers — to science: (Thanks to investigator Earle Spamer for bringing this to our attention.) BONUS: A few years later someone requested his autograph, prompting this letter from the good, […]
A bottle beyond the behind (x-ray)
The New England Journal of Medicine featured this image in October 2010, with the description: A 35-year-old man presented to the emergency department… he was found to be intoxicated… plain-film radiography of the abdomen was performed, and an intact bottle was seen in the rectosigmoid colon. Laparotomy revealed a glass bottle of beer lodged in […]