@Radiolo_GG
Exposing historical insights, and how x-rays and radiology helped to shape art, language, politics and culture. Radiology is much more than a medical marvel!
#1 BONE MUSIC
☭ 🎺🥁 “Music on the ribs” in the Soviet Union. Knowledge of such “bone music” was largely obscure even in Russia, until Stephen Coates from @realtuesdayweld researched this systematically. He came across one of these records by chance at a flea market in St Petersburg and his intrigue led him to set up the X-ray audio project, publishing a book, producing a documentary, and touring an exhibition around the world.
#2 AIR STUDY
Historically regarded as one of the most feared procedures in diagnostic medicine and described by patients to be akin to torture, Pneumoencephalography was often complemented by X-ray Tomography to improve visualisation of the brain. In the era before CT and MRI scans , these techniques — however unpleasant and imperfect — provided a crucial, if limited, window into intracranial disease and helped guide neurosurgical decisions. That both techniques are now obsolete stands as a testament not only to the extraordinary progress of medical imaging, but also to the resilience of the patients who endured them.
In The Exorcist (1973), Reagan MacNeil (Linda Blair) is seemingly demonically possessed and gets subjected to tests to decipher where specifically her affliction sits in terms of the realms of science and superstition. Director William Friedkin conducted in depth research to accurately present emerging scientific procedures and Catholic ritual. Pneumoencephalography is one of the medical tests recommended for Reagan to try pin down a brain lesion.
This movie, adapted from William Blatty’s novel (1971), created media frenzy, with increased reports of demon possessions, audience members convulsing and vomiting at screenings, and Catholic moral outrage. It was released in a context of trauma from the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, counterculture movements of civil rights and women’s rights, and alternative approaches to science and religion. It was also in the aftermath of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-1965), which addressed the relationship between the Catholic Church and the modern world. It was an exploration of the social and cultural issues of the long 1960s – an era where people were questioning central authorities and institutions, including government, church, business, and the sciences.