In an era characterized by heavy interest in the mechanization and portrayal of the human body, X-Rays arose as an entirely novel approach to that common theme. Photography and indeed motion pictures were on the rise, and the popularity they experienced was easily passed on to what the public generally viewed as an invention altogether similar in nature to those film-based fads. In addition, while it captured the imagination of the general populace and excited many, its ultimate presentations were also of such a form that they often instilled an underlying terror in the audience, society's viewers. To reveal the internal structure of the body was to reveal its secrets, to perform the impossible, to cast aside differences, and for some, to embrace death. These various interpretations all found a home in the minds of the public as news of the X-Ray's invention spread across the webs of society that lacked any previous understanding to make sense of its meaning.
This poem gives some insight into the public's fascination with the newly discovered X-Rays. The news that X-Rays could penetrate the clothes (and skin) of people to reveal what was beneath was a concept that literally had started a “craze” among people of this time [Assmus p.21]
