Abstract
Shortly after X-ray technology was discovered, it was utilized in war medicine. In this paper, the authors consider how the challenging context of war created fertile conditions for learning, as early radiologists were forced to find solutions to the unique problems posed during wartime. The “battlefield” became the “classroom” where radiologists constructed knowledge in X-ray instrumentation, methods, and education, as well as in medicine generally. Through an examination of two broad historical wartime examples, the authors illustrate how X-rays were used as part of war medicine and offer a detailed sketch of instances of knowledge construction in war radiology. With a sociology of knowledge perspective, they conclude that the knowledge generated in war belongs also to civilian medicine. An understanding of war radiology’s role as a “springboard” for knowledge construction is thus crucial for a complete understanding of the history of radiology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
To approach Dewey’s concern with experience and knowledge in more detail, see Dewey (1929) Experience and Nature (New York: Dover. Dover edition first published in 1958).
We will use the terms “radiology” and “X-rays” interchangeably for the sake of simplicity.
It must be noted that Curie’s book, La Radiologie et la Guerre, was written without references, especially since it is quoted several times in this paper. As an expert in X-ray generation techniques, Curie’s authority on the subject is without doubt, and those sections of her book are likely trustworthy. The fact that la Guerre features sections on the medical implications of X-rays without citations, however, is reason for scepticism of her claims. Nevertheless, Curie’s role in “transforming military medicine” and her experience “examining more than one million war wounded” (American College of Radiology 2012, 1) makes the discussion in her book a worthwhile source.
Giuseppe Alvaro must be mentioned here. The Italian doctor is credited as being the first to use X-rays in military medicine, though he performed his work on Italian soil, after patients had been brought home from battle (Amis 1996, 565).
The ‘fluoroscope’ was a single screen used for live X-ray examinations instead of making permanent X-ray images with glass plates. It is further explained below.
Cirillo has published numerous works on the American military’s relationship to medicine and radiology, including Bullets and Bacilli (Cirillo 2004) and the paper referenced here. Though Cirillo’s focus of study is the Spanish-American War, his efforts to analyze that war’s legacy on radiology in the First World War have been instrumental in this paper.
More cases of this phenomenon are likely to have existed, though we have not located them in our literature. We recommend this topic for future research.
The precise transfer of knowledge in radiology education from the nineteenth-century wars to the First World War is not certain. For more on the general state of medicine in the interwar period, see Bennett (1990).
Marie Curie was not the only woman physicist/chemist who brought her experience to the front. Lise Meitner, the Austrian physicist who co-discovered nuclear fission with Otto Hahn, served as an X-ray assistant for the Austrian army. Meitner returned to her laboratory in Berlin when she had the opportunity, in order to check on the decay of radioactive substances (Frisch 1970, 366). Though she was not as instrumental in the Austrian forces as Curie was for the French, Meitner was dedicated to seeing X-rays employed to help prevent the suffering of war (Sime 1996, 53–61). Other notable female scientists include Irène Joliot-Curie, Marie Curie’s daughter and later winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who joined her mother in helping to run the French mobile X-ray clinics. Jesse Slater, a British chemistry and physics researcher, served with the British forces (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Cnham 1999, 24).
References
Abbott, F.C. 1899. Surgery in the Graeco-Turkish war. The Lancet 153: 80–83, 152–156.
American College of Radiology. 2012. Retrieved on July 25, 2012 from http://gm.acr.org/SecondaryMainMenuCategories/NewsPublications/FeaturedCategories/CurrentHealthCareNews/More/WhenMadameCurieWenttoWar.aspx.
Stephen, Amis E. 1996. The influence of military radiology. In A history of the radiological sciences: Diagnosis, ed. R.A. Gagliardi, N. Knight, and B.L. McClennan, 565–578. Reston, Virginia: Radiology Centennial/American Roentgen Ray Society.
Battersby, J. 1899. The present position of the Roentgen rays in military surgery. Archives of the Roentgen Ray 3: 74–80.
Beevor, J. 1898. The working of the Roentgen ray in warfare. Journal of the Royal United Service 42: 1152–1170.
Bennett, J.D.C. 1990. Medical advances consequent to the Great War 1914–1918. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 83: 738–742.
Blaine, E.S. 1917. The caliper method of foreign-body localization. The American Journal of Roentgenology 11: 544.
Borden, W.C. 1898. The use of the Röntgen ray by the medical department of the United States in the war with Spain. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Bowlby, A. 1920. On the application of war methods to civil practice. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 13: 35–48.
1896. British Medical Journal. 1: 1059.
Bruce, F. 1901. Experiences of X-ray work during the siege of Ladysmith. Archives of the Roentgen Ray 5: 69–74.
Burrows, E.H. 1972. The first use of X-ray in war. British Journal of Radiology 45: 393–394.
Cambourne, B. 1988. The whole story: Natural learning and the acquisition of literacy in the classroom. New York: Ashton Scholastic.
Cambourne, B. 1995. Toward an educationally relevant theory of literacy learning: Twenty years of inquiry. The Reading Teacher 49(3): 182–190.
Case, J.T. 1916. ed. Roentgenological preparedness. American Journal of Roentgenology 3: 538–540.
Case, J.T. 1917a. ed. Roentgen rays in war times. American Journal of Roentgenology 4: 254–259.
Case, J.T. 1917b. ed. Military roentgenology. American Journal of Roentgenology 4: 543–544.
Christie, A.C. 1919. Mobile Roentgen ray apparatus. American Journal of Roentgenology 6: 358–367.
Cirillo, V.J. 2000. The Spanish-American war and military radiology. American Journal of Roentgenology 174: 1233–1239.
Cirillo, J. 2004. Bullets and Bacilli. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. First published in 1999.
Cooter, R. 1993. War and modern medicine. In Companion encyclopedia of the history of medicine, ed. W.F. Bynum, and R. Porter, 1536–1573. London and New York: Routledge.
Cooter, R. (2004) ‘Medicine’s Militarization?’, 2e Journée Guerre et Médicine de la Colloque de L’association Guerre et Médecine, BIU Santé. Retrieved on August 22, 2012 from http://www.bium.univ-paris5.fr/histmed/guerre/journee2004/x07cooter.pdf. pp. 1–6, (Paper presented at conference).
Coppes-Zantinga, A.R., and M.J. Coppes. 1998. Marie Curie’s contributions to radiology during World War I. Medical and Pediatric Oncology 3: 541–543.
Curie, M. 1921. La Radiologie et la Guerre. Paris: Librarie Félix Alcan.
Dewey, J. 1929. Experience and Nature. New York: Dover. Dover edition first published 1958
Dewey, J. 1933. How we think. A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process (Revised edn.). Boston: D. C. Heath.
Dewey, J. 1938. Experience and education. New York: Collier Books. Collier edition first published 1963.
Frisch, O.R. 1970. Distinguished nuclear pioneer—1973 Lise Meitner. The Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 16: 365–371.
Glasser, O. 1934. Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen and the early history of the Roentgen rays. San Francisco: Norman Publishing.
Hall-Edwards, J. 1918. Roentgenology in warfare. American Journal of Roentgenology 5: 280–287.
Johnson, G.C. 1923. ‘Chapter XIX: Division of roentgenology. In The medical department of the United States army in the world war Vol I, eds. Lynch C, Weed F. W., McAffee L. The Surgeon General’s Office, Washington: Government Printing Office. Retrieved on July 24, 2012 from http://history.amedd.army.mil/booksdocs/wwi/VolISGO/Sec2Ch19.htm. pp. 465–473.
Keller, T.M. 1997. A Roentgen centennial legacy: The first use of the X-ray by the US military in the Spanish-American war. Military Medicine 162: 551–554.
Keen, W.W. 1886. The use of the Roentgen X rays in surgery. McClure’s 6: 579–588.
Latour, B., and S. Woolgar. 1986. Laboratory life. The construction of scientific facts (Rev. ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Manges, W.F. 1933. Military roentgenology. In The Science of Radiology, eds. American College of Radiology, and Glasser, O. pp. 187–197. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.
Rayner-Canham, M., and G. Rayner-Cnham. 1999. British women chemists and the first world war. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry 23: 20–27.
Reynolds, L. 1945. The history of the use of the Roentgen ray in warfare (Caldwell-Carmen lecture). American Journal of Roentgenology 54: 649–672.
Rowland, S. 1896. Report on the application of the new photography to medicine and surgery. British Medical Journal 1(1843): 1059.
Rutkow, I.M. 1993. How american surgeons introduced radiology into U.S. medicine. The American Journal of Surgery 165: 25.
Sime, R.L. 1996. Lise Meitner. A life in physics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Stehr, N. 2010. Global knowledge? In Geographies of science, ed. P. Meusberger, D.N. Livingstone, and H. Jöns, 23–35. Dordrecht, Heidelberg, New York and London: Springer.
Straw, A.G. 1916. The use of X-rays in the Great War, with a new method for location of foreign bodies. Archives of Radiology and Electrotherapy 1: 392–395.
Ulman, Y., G. Luvadas, and N. Yildirim. 2005. The pioneering steps of radiology in Turkey (1896–1923). European Journal of Radiology 55: 306–310.
United States Division of Roentgenology. 1918. United States army X-ray manual. New York: Paul B. Hoeber.
Vygotsky, L. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful for the generous contributions of Kathryn M. Hibbert. Her knowledge of education and learning theory was instrumental while writing this paper. We would also like to thank Soveacha Ros for his editorial help and counsel on all matters medical.
Conflict of interest
None.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bourne, C.M., Chhem, R.K. War Medicine as Springboard for Early Knowledge Construction in Radiology. Medicine Studies 4, 53–70 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12376-013-0084-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12376-013-0084-5