A Brief History On December 28, 1895, the world of medicine and airport security were forever changed when William Roentgen published his paper describing the production of X-rays. Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Roentgen, a German physicist, having invented a machine to produce electro-magnetic radiation emitting X-rays. Sometimes called Roentgen Rays in honor of their discoverer, his research and careful documentation led to Roentgen receiving the first Nobel Prize for Physics. Quickly seizing the opportunity his research afforded him, Roentgen developed a way to pass X-rays through an object and onto a target material to create a picture of…
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A Brief History On December 23, 1938, a commercial fisherman pulled in a “living fossil” in his net off the coast of Africa, a creature believed to be extinct since the time of the dinosaurs! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find the first known discovery of the Coelacanth, a prehistoric fish believed to be a link between fish and 4 legged animals and the second oldest living species of common animals! Previously thought to exist from 360 million to perhaps 60 million years ago, the Coelacanth is a primitive looking fish, with pectoral and pelvic fins located at the ends…
A Brief History On December 19, 1956, Dr. John Bodkins Adams was accused of murdering 160 (or more!) of his patients! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Dr. Bodkins practicing medicine in Sussex, England when suspicions began about his practice. Never considered a “good” doctor, Adams was a poor student and considered a sloppy and inefficient doctor, although for some reason he made spectacular sums of money. Not being accepted as a worthy peer by other doctors should have been a clue! Odd facets of Adams practice surfaced, such as being named in at least 132 of their wills. His…
A Brief History On December 18, 1912, Charles Dawson announced the discovery of the prehistoric missing link between ape and man! Digging Deeper Digging deeper, we find Dawson, an amateur archaeologist presenting fossilized skull pieces to the Geological Society of London, claiming they were found in a quarry near Piltdown, East Sussex. The scientific community accepted the skull and jaw bones as genuine and declared a new species of ape-man, naming it Eoanthropus dawsoni. This creature was touted as the “missing link” between ape and man. As usual with new scientific discoveries, critics did not accept the discovery and conclusions as…
A Brief History On this date, December 10, 1907, a long running feud between the medical community and anti-vivisectionist activists boiled over into the worst of the riots and disturbances over the statue of a dog! Digging Deeper Digging deeper we find the turn of the century London medical community leaving the dark ages of medicine and trying to approach something more like the research we have today. Part of that scientific quest included the practice of vivisection, dissecting animals while they are still alive. This practice was used for research and also for the instruction of medical students, and…