Abstract
AN account of a new means of delineating internal organs in vivo, and the localisation of injuries to them, by an electrical method devised by James Shearer, M.D. (Washington, D.C.), at present a sergeant in the R.A.M.C., is given in the British Medical journal for September 30. It is difficult to realise from the description the exact nature of the electrical installation used, but the principle is said to be to impose upon two alternating electric fields of equal strength at right angles the effect of a third field having its origin in the organ under examination. The patient lies on an insulated table, and near him are placed two screens of perforated zinc plate, one horizontal and the other vertical, connected to two separate batteries. A sheet of waxed paper is then put upon a cylinder which is set in rapid rotation, and a needle scribes upon this paper a tracing of the orpan under examination, showing at the same time any lesions in it. Prints can afterwards be taken from the record by contact printing with photographic paper. Five illustrations are given in the British Medical journal showing respectively pictures of the brain, kidney, caecum and appendix, intestine, and liver of injured patients submitted to the process. The brain picture is as clear a delineation of the bloodvessels as is given in text-books of anatomy, but how it could possibly have been produced by a tapping needle upon a rapidly revolving cylinder cannot readily be conceived. Without further details to enable electro-physiologists to repeat Sergeant Shearer's work it is impossible to say more than that the results, if confirmed, represent a very remarkable discovery, which may be of immense advantage in delineating the soft internal structures of the body. So many inventions at first received with incredulity have turned out to be truly useful that we hesitate to speak of this present one as incredible. But with the imperfect details and explanation which are as yet forthcoming, we may be excused if we adopt the attitude of scientific expectancy. We trust it will not. be long before the new method is examined by proper experts, and its scientific soundness properly investigated.
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Notes . Nature 98, 94–98 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/098094b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/098094b0
