Gastro-Photo

Henry Harrington's internal life has not been happy. For 18 of his 45 years he has had pains in his stomach. Last month he entered Philadelphia's Hahnemann Hospital, where physicians at first thought his left kidney might be displaced. Then an x-ray showed a growth in his stomach. But on an x-ray plate exposed a week later the growth had disappeared. The physicians were stumped. As may any prolonged internal discomfort, Henry Harrington's pains might indicate cancer. But with x-ray there was no way to tell until the cancer should attain a considerable mass. Last week Dr. John Falenks of Manhattan went to the physicians' aid with something new to the U. S. Named "Gastro-Photo," it was a stomach camera invented in Vienna by F. G. Bach and Dr. D. J. Heilpern, already in use at the University of Vienna's Wenckel Bach Clinic.

Physicians led lanky Henry Harrington into an operating room, stood him up against a wall. Patient Harrington took a look at the Gastro-Photo, grew nervous. "Open your mouth wide," commanded Dr. Falenks, forthwith thrusting into his mouth a metal cylinder two inches long and one-half inch thick, attached to a long rubber tube. Punctured by 16 pinholes, the cylinder contained a tiny flash bulb and two pieces of film.

"Swallow," said Dr. Falenks. Henry Harrington's sharp adam's apple bobbed twice and the camera was in his stomach. Dr. Falenks squeezed a rubber bulb in his left hand, sent a puff of air down the tube to distend the patient's stomach walls. Then he pressed a button in his right hand. A metal shutter clicked open the 16 pinholes, Henry Harrington's dark interior flared up with the brilliance of 20,000 candles and in 1/120th of a second 16 views of his stomach were registered on the films.

The prints, explained Dr. Falenks, would show humps as whitish and holes as dark blurs, thus reveal the first sign of cancer or ulcer. Philadelphia physicians withheld comment until the films should be developed. But everyone knows that the sooner a cancer is discovered and treated the better. Dr. Falenks was sure the Gastro-Photo marked a noteworthy advance in the incessant cancer war.

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