Abstract
Radiology literally erupted onto the medical and scientific community following publication of the paper by Wilhelm Conrad Röentgen on December 28, 1895, describing the discovery of new rays. The immediacy of the impact on the world was strikingly evident by the speed with which physics laboratories, hospitals, and clinics began assembling equipment. Within a year there was a substantial and positive experience using radiographs for diagnosis and a beginning of testing of their very low kVp beams as treatment for superficial lesions. Reflecting the literally fantastic excitement in medicine and physics generated by Röentgen’s paper were the >1000 scientific papers and ~50 books during 1896 on the new rays [6].
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Notes
- 1.
This article did not give the author but did state that the picture “is taken from a patient at Boston City Hospital, by the kind co-operation of the Department of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with gentlemen connected with the hospital.” Williams was a physician at Boston City Hospital, a graduate of MIT, had connections with the physicists, and almost immediately became a specialist in this emerging specialty.
- 2.
We found no published statement by Kelvin to this effect.
- 3.
Albert A. Michelson, in his speech at the dedication of Ryerson Physics Lab, U. of Chicago, 1894, is quoted as saying “The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.... Our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals” [27].
Max Planck commented in a 1924 speech: “When I began my physical studies [in Munich in 1874] and sought advice from my venerable teacher Philipp von Jolly… he portrayed to me physics as a highly developed, almost fully matured science … Possibly in one or another nook there would perhaps be a dust particle or a small bubble to be examined and classified, but the system as a whole stood there fairly secured, and theoretical physics approached visibly that degree of perfection which, for example, geometry has had already for centuries” [30].
- 4.
For a thoroughly fascinating biography of Chadwick, read the book The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick by Andrew Brown [2]. This book received a full page very positive review in Nature. Brown is a radiation oncologist. He had 2 years as a fellow in this department and is now working at the Kennedy School of Government and at a clinic in New Hampshire.
- 5.
VdG wrote this letter to Karl Compton on March 20, 1931, “homogenous beams of protons at voltages that may be expected from the present work could be used for many simple experiments of fundamental nature. Among them would be the investigation of the effect of their impacts on uranium and thorium. These nuclei are already unstable, and it would be interesting to see if an impacting proton of great speed would precipitate immediate disintegration. On the other hand, it might be that the proton would be captured by the nucleus, thus opening up the possibility of creating new elements of atomic number greater than 92.” “Near the other end of the series of atomic numbers is lithium. Now suppose that a proton is shot into the 7Li nucleus, supplying the second component for the second alpha particle group. A consideration of Aston’s curve and Einstein’s law shows that a nuclear reaction might take place as follows: VLi+ aH~2 4He+ 16 MV energy.”
In his obituary of VdG, Peter Rose wrote, “This was one year before Cockcroft and Walton split the atom by bombarding 7Li with protons and eight years before element 93 was artificially produced in an accelerator! He once told me that he wanted to include in his 1931 letter his belief that useful amounts of nuclear energy might be liberated by the disintegration of uranium or thorium, but he felt Compton would think this too bold!” [35]. See also the obituary by L. Huxley [18].
- 6.
The Huntington Hospital developed from the impact of the gift of $100,000 by a Ms. Croft that resulted in the establishment of the Harvard Cancer Commission. This was followed by an additional gift, viz., Ms. Collis Huntington gave $292,000. These were sufficient to commence the planning and construction of the small hospital for cancer research and patient care in 1912 by the commission. This hospital had the first 1 MV machine for clinical use [40]. Additionally, Duane was the world’s first to devise the method for “pumping radon or as he called it emanation from a solution of radium salts” into glass capillary tubes which were then inserted into tumors. This pump was brought to the MGH by Schulz in 1942.
- 7.
The contributions to diagnostic radiology by Larry Robbins were very well regarded as evidenced by these honors: Gold Medals of ACR and RSNA; President of ABR; Chancellor of ACR; director and president of James Picker Foundation. Additionally, he wrote the eighth edition of Röentgen Interpretation in 1955. He retired in 1971 with the appointment of Juan Taveras as his successor.
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Suit, H.D., Loeffler, J.S. (2011). Radiation Oncology and the MGH 1896–1945. In: Evolution of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6744-2_2
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