GENERAL RUSSELLI beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for War whether no apparatus for the application of the Röntgen rays was carried with the field army during the recent operations in Egypt; whether there is every reason to believe that some lives of wounded officers and men might have been saved had these appliances been available; and whether in future the Government will take steps to prevent any question of economy in transport interfering with every precaution being taken to save valuable lives?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe Röntgen ray apparatus, which is a very recent invention, is very difficult to adapt for field service, and was not carried with the field army in the recent operations. From the Returns, the medical authorities do not consider there was a single case in which life could have been saved by the use of the apparatus. Two sets are now in Egypt, and one more will be 1171 sent out shortly. Two have been adapted as far as possible for field service, and one is for use in the base hospital.
§ SIR J. FERGUSSON (Manchester, N.E.)Seeing that 400 men were wounded by bullets, would not the apparatus have been most useful in locating the bullets?
§ MR. BRODRICKThe senior medical officer has gone carefully into the cases, and has been unable to trace any single case in which the apparatus would have been specially useful, or in which it is clear that an operation would have been carried out more successfully by the use of the rays.