a letter to Elizabeth Fleischmann

Elizabeth Fleischmann was an important figure in x-ray history.  She was one of the few women involved in the history and had her own roentgenology clinic in San Francisco.  Her clinic worked closely with the U.S. military forces during the Spanish-American war.  Those injured in the Philippines were brought to San Francisco to her clinic.

She suffered from radiation burns on her hands and eventually had an arm amputated.  She later died of cancer due to excessive radiation. Before the new C tube, named after William David Coolidge who invented it, joined x-ray history, radiation could not be controlled.  It ran rampant around the room and oftentimes injured the scientists working in this field.

She is considered a martyr.  Well at least according to the book American Martyrs to Science through the Roentgen Rays published in 1936.  I thought she deserved a personal letter from me considering i benefit (?) so much from her work.

Dear Elizabeth,

I hear that you have cancer and should be dead soon.  You are slowly reaching out to your lost arm in hopes of being rejoined, but it will not be within this life. Your reconstructed body will not breathe life and pump warm blood.  It will be cold.

I hear that you have cancer and should be dead soon.  Why is this so, Elizabeth?  What is the hidden cause of your miserable disease?  What is the cause of your malignancy?

I hear that you have cancer and should be dead soon.  How is it that the well-known woman in her field has to die?  Why do you have to do, Elizabeth?  How come you cannot stay?

Faithfully yours,

Meredith