Priority in the Therapeutic Use of X-rays

IN order that the history of x-rays may properly record events in the order in which they occurred, and also for the purpose of giving credit where credit is due, I submit the following brief. Recently, while looking through some boxes which contained records of the happenings of many years ago, I discovered several references (which I thought had long been destroyed by fire) pertaining to my own early work in the x-ray field. Under the light of this newly found material, I feel that the claims, which have been made for others, to priority in the therapeutic use of x-rays, should no longer go unchallenged by me. In other words, when my records are compared with all the available records of others in this field, I am convinced that the way will have been opened for me to make the following claims: First, that I was the first person exposed to x-rays who received sufficient cumulative effects to develop x-ray dermatitis. Second, that I was the first person to apply x-rays to pathologic lesions on living human subjects for therapeutic purposes. Third, that I was the first to use sheet lead, or, for that matter, any other substance, as a protective against untoward x-ray effects. The evidence which I am able to bring out of the seclusion of nearly thirty-nine years, and which constitutes the bases of my claims, comprises— First, a business card of mine of the year 1895, which shows that, at the time the discovery of the x-ray was announced, I was a manufacturer of vacuum tubes; and Second, two introductory letters, written by the two physicians who sent the first two patients to me for x-ray treatment. Although I have had frequent occasions to refer to this pioneering effort of mine (having been, from the beginning, a teacher of roentgenology and also having written many monographs dealing practically with all the different phases of x-ray work), I am frank when I state that I never have made a campaign to have my claims to priority in the therapeutic use of x-rays officially, as it were, accepted. I must state in passing that, at the time I did this work, I could not realize the importance of the subject, nor how involved with controversy it would become in later years. As mentioned before, I believed that all written evidence bearing upon this issue had been destroyed by fire. This, together with the fact that, with the exception of myself, all those directly connected with this event had died before this subject had reached the controversial stage, would make it doubly difficult, if not impossible, for me to substantiate my claims. I felt that circumstances were against me, and, without the evidence which I now have in my possession, the channels of credit were closed to me, and that I could not, therefore, expect support for my claims.