ANR | Edison, Clarence Dally, and the Hidden Perils of the X-Rays
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New York<br>World
Monday, August 3, 1903, page 1
EDISON FEARS
HIDDEN PERILS
OF THE X-RAYS.
Has<br>Abandoned Search for Fluo-
rescent<br>Lamp, Finding His
Sight Deranged by
Experiments.
LABORATORY<br>EMPLOYEE
LOSES HAND AND ARM.
Clarence Dally<br>is Reduced to
Pitiable State by Imprudent
Exposure<br>to Light.
That loss of sight,<br>cancerous disease and even death may come to him who is constantly exposed<br>to or inexperienced in the use of Roentgen rays has been demonstrated<br>in a pitiable manner in the laboratory of Thomas A. Edison at Orange,<br>N.J. Clarence Dally, an assistant to the "Wizard of Menlo Park,"<br>has contributed an arm and a hand to this demonstration, while Mr. Edison<br>himself suffers from the disturbed focus of one of his eyes through experiments<br>with this mysterious light in an endeavor to find for it some commercial<br>utility.
This chief sufferer, Dally, who has a wife<br>and two boys to take care of, is left to depend entirely upon the generosity<br>of Mr. Edison, in which interest, supplemented by an enthusiastic desire<br>to delve deeper in that mysterious force which brings to view objects<br>concealed in solid matter, he has been incapacitated from taking up the<br>life burdens and duties that usually fall to a man.
The story of Clarence Dally is best told by Dr.<br>W.B. Graves, one of the leading surgeons of New Jersey, who was seen by<br>a World representative in his cottage on Main Street, East Orange, yesterday<br>afternoon.
"Clarence Dally came to me nearly seven years<br>ago," said Dr. Graves, "and I wish to say in the beginning that<br>I regard him a martyr to science. He is so regarded by the medical profession<br>generally, for not one cent has ever been charged him for either surgical<br>or medical services. He presents to science a pitiable object-lesson of<br>the dangers of inexperienced or continuous experiments with X-rays, and<br>his sufferings have done more to bring to professional notice a correct<br>knowledge of things to be avoided than anything else in the history of<br>scientific research upon this subject.
Had Been Chief Gunner's<br>Mate.
"Dally was a wiry chap, as hard as nails; a little<br>fellow, but a specimen of perfect manhood when he left the United States<br>Navy, in which he had been a chief gunner's mate, to take up the practical<br>study of X-rays, because they fascinated him. When he came to me seven<br>years ago it was because his regular physician thought he needed the services<br>of a surgeon. He had been following his hobby enthusiastically and had<br>been testing tubes in the Edison laboratory, exposing himself to the forcible<br>light with an utter disregard to himself.
"In the beginning his hair begun to<br>fall out and his face began to wrinkle. Then dermatitis, or inflammation<br>of the skin, set in, and manifested itself in a sore on the back of his<br>left hand. This was caused, he told me by placing it between the fluoroscope<br>and the X-ray tube, in order that the latter might be thoroughly tested,<br>or perhaps by the light falling upon his hand as it passed the flange<br>of the instrument as he held it. There was no sensation of acute pain,<br>only a soreness and a numbness. In other words, he had used his own person<br>continuously to test the tubes.
"He was doctored carefully with a view<br>to curing the skin disease upon the back of his hand, but it grew worse<br>instead of better, all the methods of treatment failing to influence it.<br>Then arterio sclerosis, or a thickening or hardening of the arteries set<br>in, and this extended even to the most minute blood vessel in his arm.
"There was no paralysis, but the drying<br>up of the blood vessels took away the nourishment from the tissue and<br>prevented the sore on his left hand from healing. The right hand was also<br>affected, even to the finger tips, but it was not in such a serious condition<br>as the left.
Developed<br>Into Cancer.
"The trouble in his left hand finally<br>developed into a skin cancer, and the whole arm, away up above the elbow,<br>and well into the biceps, was affected. There was a consultation of physicians,<br>and it was agreed that he must be operated upon at once or the poisonous<br>cancer would place his life in jeopardy. This was after five years treatment,<br>with the very best medical advice obtainable, in an endeavor to save his<br>left arm.
"Two years ago this arm was amputated.<br>The operation was performed by Dr. Lloyd, of the Post Graduate Medical<br>School, which operation I attended. The amputation was about three inches<br>below the shoulder, all above that being healthy.
"I then turned my attention to the<br>right arm, with a view to saving it, but it began to manifest the same<br>disposition as the amputated arm, and a short time ago I took off four<br>of Dally's fingers, so that now he has but one thumb on one hand with<br>which to earn his livelihood. It...