Orthopaedic surgery for students and general practitioners : preliminary considerations and diseases of the spine : 114 original illustrations / by R. Tunstall Taylor.

  • Taylor, Robert Tunstall, 1867-
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Orthopaedic surgery for students and general practitioners : preliminary considerations and diseases of the spine : 114 original illustrations / by R. Tunstall Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    CHAPTER III. X-RAY APPARATUS AND TECHNIQUE. In no branch of medicine does skiagraphy play such an important and imperatively necessary role, as in surgery, where for diagnosis, in conjunction with the clinical symp- toms, it is an invaluable aid. This is especially true in ortho- paedic surgery, where the bones and joints are the chief objects of investigation, which we have to examine thoroughly clini- cally in making our diagnosis. On this account, it has been deemed wise to devote a brief chapter to X-ray apparatus and its mode of application, with no attempt to go deeply into the subject with electrical technicality and phraseology. More comprehensive accounts of the subject are left to the special works on X-ray apparatus and technique and the reader is referred to such books as William's Rontgen Hsiys in ]\Iedicine and Surgery (Macmillan, New York) for more details. Although this subject does not strictly fall under the heading orthopaedic surger}^, the author has introduced it more especially for his own students and assistants, as an aid to proper diagnostic technique and observation in ortho- paedic practice. The X-rays, or Rontgen rays are produced by an electric discharge between two separated electrodes in a modified Crooke's or vacuum tube. They have the power of pene- trating a large number of opaque objects; they affect a photographic plate and may be made visible to the eye also by means of a fluorescent screen known as a fluoroscope. There are thus three necessary parts to the X-ray outfit: