FIRST MEDICAL X-RAY

Hanover local boy Eddie McCarthy slipped into medical history by breaking his wrist while skating on the Connecticut River. Several days later, on February 3, 1896, the fracture was immortalized in the first medical X-ray. The experiment, an early example of Dartmouth’s interdisciplinary approach to research, took place in the physics lab, where professors from the Medical School, Thayer School and the astronomy department proved the diagnostic potential of the X-ray. The exposure lasted 20 minutes and revealed a fractured ulna.