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Invention of the X-ray
German physics professor, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, presented a remarkable lecture entitled “Concerning a New Kind of Ray.” Roentgen called it the “X-ray”, with “x” being the algebraic symbol for an unknown quantity. -
Finsen's Methods
Finsen discovered that lupus was amenable to treatment by ultraviolet rays when separated out by a system of quartz crystals, and thereafter created a lamp to sift out the rays. The so-called Finsen lamp became widely used in for phototherapy, and derivatives of it became used when experimenting with other types of radiotherapy. -
X-Ray Studies
Robert Kienböck produced a study based on a series of experiments that demonstrated that it was the x-rays themselves that decreased the cancer cells.The studies suggested that the rays varied in penetration according to the degree of vacuum in the tube. -
Radiation Machines
Roentgen received the first Nobel Prize awarded in physics. Radiation therapy began with radium and with relatively low-voltage diagnostic machines. -
Becquerel Burn
Henri Becquerel had placed a tube of radium in a waistcoat pocket where it had remained for several hours; a week or two after which there was severe inflammation of his skin underneath where the radium had been kept. Ernest Besnier, a dermatologist, examined the skin and expressed the opinion that it was due to the radium, leading to experiments by Curie which confirmed it. -
Radioactivity in Well Water
The discoverer of the electron, J. J. Thomson, wrote a letter to the journal Nature in which he detailed his discovery of the presence of radioactivity in well water. Soon after, others found that the waters in many of the world's most famous health springs were also radioactive. This radioactivity is due to the presence of radium emanation produced by the radium that is present in the ground through which the waters flow. -
Finsen's Success
By 1905, it was estimated that fully 50 percent of the cases of lupus were successfully healed by Finsen's methods. -
Doubting Radiology
X-ray experiments in pulmonary tuberculosis proved useless. Aside from the medical profession losing faith in the ability of x-ray therapy, the public increasingly viewed it as a dangerous type of treatment. This resulted in a period of pessimism about the use of x-rays. -
Treating Cancer With X-Rays
Henri Coutard, a French radiologist working with the Institut Curie, presented evidence that laryngeal cancer could be treated without disastrous side-effects. Coutard was inspired by the observations of Claudius Regaud, who found that a single dose of x-rays sufficient enough to produce severe skin damage and tissue destruction in a rabbit, if administered in fractions, over a course of days, would sterilize the rabbit but have no effect on subcutaneous tissues. -
Development of Process
Coutard had developed a protracted, fractionated process that remains the basis for current radiation therapy -
Radiation Therapy
Hospitals everywhere began to use Radiation Treatment to cure and control cancer.
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