Page 8 - X-Rays: A Graphic History

CHAPTER 2:
CROOKES TUBES

AND X-RAYS

My God,
what is this?

In 1881, US president James Garfield
was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac
train station in Washington, DC.

Garfield’s doctors tried to locate the bullet by sticking their fingers into his gunshot wound. At the time,
doctors rarely wore gloves. Surgeries were often dangerous and unclean.

I can’t
find the
bullet.
It must be
deeper than we
thought. Open the
wound further and
keep looking.

For weeks, doctors failed to locate and remove the bullet lodged inside Garfield. The wound became
infected. More than two months after the shooting, Garfield died.

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