Read Online Amazing Medical Stories by George Burden - Free Book Online
Authors: George Burden
Tags: BIO017000, MED039000
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rather the beginning of his long and diverse career as an inventor. While his permanent home became Washington, D.C., Bell loathed the hot, humid summers and subsequently
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The first medical X-ray in Canada. Taken by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, this film allowed doctors to find and remove a needle from the long-suffering patientâs foot. PARKS CANADA / ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
built a large house on his estate on Bras dâOr Lake in Cape Breton. Beinn Bhreagh, meaning âbeautiful mountainâ in Gaelic, remains a home of Bellâs descendants to this day. It witnessed the fruition of some of Alexander Bellâs most innovative ideas. These included many medical devices, the first powered flight in the British Empire and pioneering work in hydroplane technology, which was to set world records for speed in water craft.
When American President James Garfield was shot in 1881, his physiciansasked Bell to locate the bullet. Bell hoped to use a metal detector, which he had developed, to carry out this task. Though previously successful, the device malfunctioned due to the failure to remove all metal from the hospital room as Bell had requested. The mattress on which the President rested contained metal coils, so new an innovation at the time that few had heard of it. Bell rushed back to his lab and developed a âbullet probeâ or âtelephonic needle probeâ which could be inserted into the entry wound. This invention was used very effectively in the Boer War and in World War I, but it was unfortunately too late to aid President Garfield. Ironically, the bullet was found in a fairly innocuous location at the autopsy, and it is thought that death probably resulted from infection due to repeated manual probing by the Presidentâs doctors. Bell was later awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Medicine at Heidelberg University for his bullet probe.
Another medical device invented by Bell was the audiometer. Developed in 1879, it is similar to the ones we use today to assess hearing loss. In honour of his work in this field, the unit by which we measure sound, the decibel, was named for the inventor. Genetics was another area Bell explored, and he studied in depth the patterns of deafness and longevity in humans.
Bell became fascinated by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgenâs invention of the X-ray in 1895 and began working on his own device, taking the first medical X-ray in Canada at his home in Baddeck, in October 1897. True to the inventorâs practical nature, the subject was not merely a healthy volunteer but a man with persistent foot and leg pain. Two local physicians, Dr. MacDonald and Dr. McKeen, asked Bellâs help in locating a broken needle fragment in this patientâs foot. The X-ray showed the needle clearly, and the doctors removed it, completely relieving the manâs suffering. Bell also was the first person in North America to advocate treatment of deep-seated cancers using radium encased in glass tubes, thus becoming our first radiation oncologist.
Bell became interested in respiratory disease after it claimed the life of one of his sons. He invented an artificial lung, the âvacuum jacket,â remarkably like the iron lung used fifty years later to save polio victims. He hoped also to use this to resuscitate victims of drowning and successfully employed it to revive a sheep which had drowned. One of Bellâs
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Dr. Alexander Graham Bell searching with his metal detector for the bullet which felled American President James Garfield. PARKS CANADA / ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL
employees witnessed this and, convinced it was the work of the devil, quit his job and even refused to accept a final paycheque.
Though his amiable nature made him well loved in the community, Bell had developed a bit of a reputation as an eccentric among some of the people in Baddeck. His early aviation experiments with huge kites did nothing to dispel this
----
The first medical X-ray in Canada. Taken by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, this film allowed doctors to find and remove a needle from the long-suffering patientâs foot. PARKS CANADA / ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE
built a large house on his estate on Bras dâOr Lake in Cape Breton. Beinn Bhreagh, meaning âbeautiful mountainâ in Gaelic, remains a home of Bellâs descendants to this day. It witnessed the fruition of some of Alexander Bellâs most innovative ideas. These included many medical devices, the first powered flight in the British Empire and pioneering work in hydroplane technology, which was to set world records for speed in water craft.
When American President James Garfield was shot in 1881, his physiciansasked Bell to locate the bullet. Bell hoped to use a metal detector, which he had developed, to carry out this task. Though previously successful, the device malfunctioned due to the failure to remove all metal from the hospital room as Bell had requested. The mattress on which the President rested contained metal coils, so new an innovation at the time that few had heard of it. Bell rushed back to his lab and developed a âbullet probeâ or âtelephonic needle probeâ which could be inserted into the entry wound. This invention was used very effectively in the Boer War and in World War I, but it was unfortunately too late to aid President Garfield. Ironically, the bullet was found in a fairly innocuous location at the autopsy, and it is thought that death probably resulted from infection due to repeated manual probing by the Presidentâs doctors. Bell was later awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Medicine at Heidelberg University for his bullet probe.
Another medical device invented by Bell was the audiometer. Developed in 1879, it is similar to the ones we use today to assess hearing loss. In honour of his work in this field, the unit by which we measure sound, the decibel, was named for the inventor. Genetics was another area Bell explored, and he studied in depth the patterns of deafness and longevity in humans.
Bell became fascinated by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgenâs invention of the X-ray in 1895 and began working on his own device, taking the first medical X-ray in Canada at his home in Baddeck, in October 1897. True to the inventorâs practical nature, the subject was not merely a healthy volunteer but a man with persistent foot and leg pain. Two local physicians, Dr. MacDonald and Dr. McKeen, asked Bellâs help in locating a broken needle fragment in this patientâs foot. The X-ray showed the needle clearly, and the doctors removed it, completely relieving the manâs suffering. Bell also was the first person in North America to advocate treatment of deep-seated cancers using radium encased in glass tubes, thus becoming our first radiation oncologist.
Bell became interested in respiratory disease after it claimed the life of one of his sons. He invented an artificial lung, the âvacuum jacket,â remarkably like the iron lung used fifty years later to save polio victims. He hoped also to use this to resuscitate victims of drowning and successfully employed it to revive a sheep which had drowned. One of Bellâs
----
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell searching with his metal detector for the bullet which felled American President James Garfield. PARKS CANADA / ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL NATIONAL
employees witnessed this and, convinced it was the work of the devil, quit his job and even refused to accept a final paycheque.
Though his amiable nature made him well loved in the community, Bell had developed a bit of a reputation as an eccentric among some of the people in Baddeck. His early aviation experiments with huge kites did nothing to dispel this
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