American Martyrs to Science through the Roentgen Rays by Percy BrownReview by: M. F. Ashley-MontaguIsis, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Dec., 1936), pp. 219-220Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/225091 .

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REVIEWS 219

Percy Brown.-American Martyrs to Science Through the Roentgen Rays. XV+276. CHARLES C. THOMAS, Springfield, Ill., 1936 ($3.50)

One woman and twenty-seven men of American nationality who died as a result of their devotion to their work in connection with roentgenology are here finely memorialized by one of the leading figures in American roentgenology, Dr. PERCY BROWN. It is in the sense of suffering and death as a consequence of devotion to a cause that Dr. BROWN uses the term martyr, and in this sense the application of the term to the men and women who figure in the pages of this book is quite unobjectionable, though it may, perhaps, be felt that it would have been more in keeping with the spirit of these victims of their work had a less emotionally charged epithet been applied to them. When, however, in the light of their great contributions to the cause of humanity, one reads of the sufferings of these men and women and of the courage with which those sufferings were borne the feeling grows on one that martyr is an epithet totally inadequate to describe what all these men and women actually represented. Not one of them seems ever to have realized what the effects of their work were likely to be upon themselves, and the pursuit of their labours were carried on with an enthusiasm completely innocent of any notion of its dangerous character. When the effects of continued exposure to the Roentgen-Rays began to manifest themselves, it was generally too late. The course of the declared disease was invariably attended with the most painful sensations, and its development was such as to necessitate recourse to repeated operative procedures which, however, in the case of these twenty-eight American men and women, failed to give more than a relief that was momentary, the final relief came only with death.

Of these twenty-eight pioneers it is of interest to note that eleven were not medically qualified, and that at least six of these were technicians who helped to devise the instruments which afterwards came into common use.

It was in December i895 that ROENTGEN'S Preliminary Comnunication appeared. Ten weeks later F. BATTELLI, in an article entitled " The Reaction of Roentgen-Rays upon various Human Tissues " (Atti. Acad. Med. Fis. Fiorent., 14 Mar. i896) sounded what should have served as the first warning of the dangers of the new discovery. In the same year H. D. HAWKS, a student in the Department of Physics at Columbia University, published a detailed account of the manifold skin injuries suffered by himself as a result of exposure to Roentgen-Rays (Electrical Engineer, N. Y., 22276, i896). Somewhat later in the same year Professor ELIHU THOMSON published an account of an experiment performed on himself (Electrical WJ7orld, N. Y., 28:766, I896; Electrical

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220 ISIS, XXVI, I

Engineer, N. Y., 22:520 & 534, I896) in which the little finger of his left hand had been exposed to the Roentgen-Rays. The painful and now well-known changes produced in this finger led THOMSON to conclude that " There is only the supposition left that the effect was produced by Roentgen-rays or something that comes from Roentgen-rays..." " There is evidently " he remarked " a point beyond which exposure cannot go without causing serious trouble." There were others who also repeatedly urged the necessity of taking precautions in the use of these rays, and WILLIAM ROLLINS, as early as I898 constructed a non-radiable box with a diaphragmal aperture for the purpose of enclosing the focus-tube and thus preventing the scattering of its emanations.

The evidence seems to be such that it is almost certain that most of these early workers were unacquainted with the warnings which had been issued by their immediate predecessors, and in some cases their contemporaries, for from the accounts given by Dr. BROWN of their personalities it seems clear that they would, had they have been aware of the danger to which they were exposing themselves, have taken all reasonable precautions to safeguard themselves as well as others. There is evidence that only one of these workers, W. C. EGEHOFF, actually disregarded the warnings given him by others and by his own symptoms. Within four years, at the early age of thirty-five, he was dead.

Apparently the various articles which were written and published in order to sound the alarm of danger never reached these workers until by their own tragic examples they were able to make their existence and their significance aware to others. It is a tragic story, and Dr. BROWN has told it impressively.

New York University. M. F. ASHLEY-MONTAGU.

John Scott Haldane. (I86o-1936).-The Philosophy of a Biologist. XII+155 p. Oxford University Press, 1935. (Price $2.50).

This book sets forth the philosophical conclusions of a man, too well known to require a biographical introduction, who has devoted his life to biological science from a.cultural background of Hegelian and Kantian idealism. The present volume of reflections is unusually stimulating and covers more ground than one might infer from the small number of pages.

The book consists of an introduction, a retrospect, and four chapters I. Philosophy and Physical Science. II. Philosophy and Biology. III. Philosophy and Psychology. IV. Philosophy and Religion.

The author begins with an apologia for philosophy and affirms that this discipline, in spite of its ever changing form and its destructive criticism of predecessors, belongs to the same category as science. " When

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