Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1902 — Some Facts and Opinions [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Some Facts and Opinions

USE OF TELEPHONES IN SURGERY London Hoopltals Have Had Great Success with the Appliance. In several London hospitals surgeons are now using the telephone whenever they have occasion to probe for bullets or other "metallic objects. The receiver of the telephone is placed on the head of the operator and the patent is placed, in the ufeual manner, in contact with a plate, the general medium employed being a wet sponge or some paper saturated with a saline solution, which is spread over the plate. The latter is connected with

the telephone by a wire and the probe, after it has been introduced into the body, naturally vibrates as soon as the foreign metallic substance comes in coutact with it. The probe is also connected with the telephone by a wire, and thus no such blunder is possible as sometimes when an ordinary battery is used. When a telephone is used in this way the plate acts as one pole and the probe as the other. Needles, bullets, grains and shot and pieces of steel and copper can be easily located by the use of this simple method.