termine positively whether any fragment of
glass still remains in a hand from which it is at least presumed all the
fragments have been extracted. Even after the hand has been dressed, it
is possible, through the dressing, to skiagraph it, and determine the
presence or absence of any such fragments of glass.

[Illustration: FIGURE 10.---SKIAGRAPH OF A SECTION OF A HUMAN ARM,
SHOWING TUBERCULOUS DISEASE OF THE ELBOW-JOINT.

("American Journal of the Medical Sciences," March, 1896.)]

Possibly before long we shall be able to determine also the presence or
absence of solid foreign bodies in the larynx or windpipe. Every now and
then, patients, especially children, get into the windpipe jack-stones,
small tin toys, nails, pins, needles, etc., foreign bodies which may
menace life very seriously. To locate them exactly is very difficult.
The X rays may here be a great help. An attempt has been made by Rowland
and Waggett. to skiagraph such foreign bodies, with encouraging results.
Improvements in our methods will, I think, undoubtedly lead to a
favorable use of the method in these instances. Beans, peas, wooden
toys, and similar foreign bodies, being easily permeable to the rays,
will not probably be discovered.

If our methods improve so that we can skiagraph through the entire body,
it will be very possible to determine the presence and location of
foreign bodies in the stomach and intestines. A large number of cases
are on record in which plates with artificial teeth, knives, forks,
coins, and other such bodies have been swallowed; and the surgeon is
often doubtful, especially if they are small, whether they have remained
in the stomach, or have passed into the intestines, or entirely escaped
from the body. In these cases, too, a caution should be uttered as to
the occasional inadvisability of operating, even should they be located,
for if small they will probably escape without doing any harm. But it
may be possible to look at them from day to day and determine whether or
not they are passing safely through the intestinal canal, or have been
arrested, at any point, and, therefore, whether the surgeon should
interfere. The man who had swallowed a fork which remained in his
stomach (_l'homme a la fourchette_, as he was dubbed in Paris) was
a noted patient, and would have proved an excellent subject for a
skiagraph, had the method then existed.

As sunlight is known to be the foe of bacteria, the hope has been
expressed