Naked To The Bone: Medical Imaging In The Twentieth Century [Paperback]

Bettyann H. Kevles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 1998

A century ago, the living body, like most of the material world, was opaque. Then Wilhelm Roentgen captured and X-ray image of his wife’s finger—her wedding ring “floating” around a white bone—and our range of vision changed forever. By the 1920s, X-ray technology was common-place: all army recruits had lined up for chest pictures during WWI, and children were examining the bones of their feet in shoe store fluoroscopes, spectacularly unaware of the radiation they were absorbing. Through lucid prose, vivid anecdotes, and over seventy striking illustrations, science writer Bettyann Holtzman Kevles shows how X-rays and the subsequent daughter technologies—CT, MRI, PET, ultrasound—transformed the practice of medicine (from pediatrics to neurosurgery), the rules of evidence in courts, and the vision of artists.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It is difficult for us to imagine how mysterious the inside of a living person seemed only 100 years ago, when x-rays were discovered. At that time only God could see a person in the mother's womb; now ultrasound baby pictures, like the one of Bettyann Kevles's grandson on the dedication page of Naked to the Bone, can be mailed out six months before the child is born. Kevles provides an excellent history of the technology of medical imaging--x-rays, CT, NMR, PET, ultrasound, and mammography--but builds on it to examine the wider ramifications of bodily transparency. Anyone going through the high-tech diagnostic gauntlet of the turn of the millennium will want to read this book. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Though it would be hard to imagine a topic with less apparent general appeal, this addition to the Sloan Technology Series is in fact a very good read. Writing 101 years after the discovery of X rays by Wilhelm Roentgen, the author presents the history of the technology, showing how it was refined over the following 50 years and challenged after WWII by newer technologies based on television and the computer. Because of X rays, people began to see the world differently, and we now are at the point where we "no longer accept surfaces as barriers, but see them instead as smoky scrims through which we now have access." At the same time, X rays became associated with tissue damage and ultimately with cancer, making them the first technology with a "built-in time bomb." This has caused us to think differently about science than we did before, the author claims, even though fear of the unintended consequences of knowledge goes back in our culture at least as far as Icarus and is more recently manifested in the cautionary tales of Drs. Faust and Frankenstein. The second wave of imaging technology, involving CT, MRI and PET scans, has had less of a traumatic effect on culture, perhaps because each advance was a more gradual accretion based on previous efforts. While this is interesting science, it is the cultural effects spelled out in the final chapter on "The Transparent Body in Late Twentieth-Century Culture" that constitute the heart of this engrossing and informative book. Illustrated.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 394 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (March 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020132833X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201328332
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #733,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars superior science writing, November 15, 1998

By 

Rick Hunter (Malone, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Naked To The Bone: Medical Imaging In The Twentieth Century (Paperback)

I love reading science books geared toward non-scientists such as I. Bettyann Holtzmann Kelves Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century exactly fit the bill. Profusely illustrated and gracefully written, this fine work of non-fiction tells the story of x-rays, CT scan, MRI, sonograms, and PET scans. Kelves writes for the non-scientist, and does an excellent job of explaining how these various machines work, how they were perceived at the time, the economics of their development and marketing (Kelves never forgets that, for better or worse, medicine and inventing have always been businesses), and their changes in perception and use over time. Perhaps most interesting, and unexpected, are her two chapters addressing how medical imaging -- the ability to see "bones and all" -- was itself imaged in and influenced the visual, literary, and fine arts. Of particular interest to me, as a lawyer, is her accounts of how x-rays and other imaging devices were first used, and then later relied upon (or rejected) in courts of law. The depth and breadth of her research are truly impressive, as is her fine prose.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "An occasional error- - - - " in "Naked to the Bone"., June 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

On page 92 of "Naked to the Bone", author Kevles gibes at the 1896 edition of "Practical Radiography", which through 20 years of reprints carried an inverted x-ray frontispiece captioned "The Human Heart in situ". She explains that "many people, including physicians, simply could not tell what they were looking at in a radiograph or through a fluoroscope." I would certainly wish her the same 20 years of reprints for her most informative and well- researched history, but before the second edition comes out she should correct the MRI on page 174, which is a dandy view of the cervical spine but which is inverted! Apparently, progress in medical imaging has far outpaced progress in editorial scrutiny over the past 100 years.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What an incredible story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it., July 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Naked to the Bone: Medical Imaging in the Twentieth Century (Sloan Technology Series) (Hardcover)

I listened to the interview on NPR's Science Friday several months ago thought how exciting can the discovery of x-rays be? I gave it a quick glance at a local book store and I was hooked. Did people actually buy lead lined underwear? Do physicians make mistakes? Even if they are treating the president of the United States? Lawyers found a way to profit from x-rays 100 years ago too. It is cleverly presented describing events as they occurred. I did find one fact that was not correct, the invention of television. According to the book, TUBE, television was invented 15 years earlier than what was mentioned in the book. Aside from that, I think it is an incredible story.