How Does X-Rays Have A Negative Impact On Society

Words: 1695
Pages: 7

Hannah Tjalsma
Mrs. Vives
Modern World
June 9, 2017
The X-traordinary Impact of X-Rays X-Ray technology has been a significant breakthrough since its discovery in 1895. This invention has allowed doctors to look inside the human body in a non-invasive way to detect abnormalities not visible externally. Additionally, X-rays have provided society with greater protection in public areas like airports, as well as satellites in space with X-ray detectors for X-ray astronomy. Perhaps no other technological innovation in the 20th century has had as big an impact on more areas of society than the X-ray.
The discovery of the X-Ray was accidentally stumbled upon by a German physicist named Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895. Roentgen was testing if
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President James Garfield was shot once in the arm and again in the back with a revolver by a man named Charles Guiteau. In efforts to extract the bullet from Garfield’s arm, Dr. Willard Bliss was called in to examine the wound. He tried to locate the bullet by “sticking his unwashed fingers and unsterilized instruments deep into Garfield’s wound” (Carlson 1). Bliss was unable to find the bullet, but was certain it was in his right arm. He continued to search for the bullet in the right arm with his bare hands while the bullet was actually in the left arm. Due to Bliss’ efforts to remove the bullet, “his unsterilized probing of Garfield’s wound caused an infection that spread to the President’s bloodstream” (2). Garfield suffered from an infection that was almost positively due to the unhygienic way Bliss approached the bullet. In …………….“James Garfield died of septic poisoning that was almost certainly caused by Bliss’ repeated unsanitary probing of his wound. An autopsy revealed that the bullet was on the left side of his torso, not on the right, where Bliss insisted that Bell look for it” (Carlson 2). If the X-Ray was accessible at that point in history, it could have been used to locate the bullet in the left arm and confirm that it was not on the right like Bliss believed it to be. Additionally, if Bliss had not cut open Garfield’s body and used his hands to feel for the bullet but instead used an X-Ray, infection would not have been as likely and Garfield may have survived the