Jeffrey Womack, University of Houston
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, Seminar Series
Date and Time:
February 25 2015, 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM
Claire Fagin Hall, Room 435, Floor 4
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Abstract: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen published his initial report on “a new kind of ray” at the end of December, 1895. Chicago’s first x-ray therapy clinic opened for business in February of 1896. The juxtaposition of these two events is a reminder of the immediate, oft-overlooked adoption of x-ray emitters as a therapeutic, rather than simply a diagnostic, technology. And while the story of x-ray diagnosis fits into a fairly comfortable progress narrative of steady improvement in equipment, patient and practitioner safety, and medical utility, this presentation will argue that x-ray therapy has a more complicated legacy, juxtaposing healing with harm and innovation with risk. X-ray therapists tried to behave in ethical ways, but even when practitioners understood the theoretical dangers of x-ray exposure, their excitement about the technology, coupled with the relatively slow appearance of harm in the body, meant that patients often suffered damage at the hands of would-be x-ray therapists. Moreover, x-ray technology subverted the existing mechanisms meant to regulate the relationship between therapeutic practitioners, their patients and experimental subjects, and other medical professionals. The predictable result was tragedy, both for practitioners and patients: painful and disfiguring burns, amputated limbs, pernicious anemia, and a brutal wave of cancer that decimated the ranks of early radiological practitioners. By examining the causes of that tragedy, my work opens the door onto questions about technology, risk, and medical authority that remain relevant for today’s medical professionals and innovators.
Bio: Jeffrey Womack is a doctoral student at the University of Houston, completing his dissertation on the development of radium and x-ray therapies between 1895 and 1935, under the direction of Martin Melosi. His recent publications include “Nuclear Weapons, Dystopian Deserts, and Science Fiction Cinema,” in Vulcan: The International Journal of the Social History of Military Technology 1, No. 1 (2013; Bart Hacker, editor), and “Miracle in the Sky: Solar Power Satellites,” in American Energy Policy in the 1970s, (Robert Lifset, editor; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Environmental History and the Encyclopedia of African American History (1896-Present). Jeffrey has worked as a consultant to the National Park Service, contributing to the service’s Special Memorial Study of the historical significance of the NASA Shuttle program and the Columbia disaster. He also helped author the Texas Historical Commission’s heritage tourism brochure, “African Americans in Texas,” as an employee of HRA, Gray & Pape. Jeffrey is currently based in the Philadelphia area, where he teaches at Drexel University and works at the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He most recently curated the library’s special exhibit, “Therapy and the Atom in Philadelphia.”