The roentgenographic demonstration of air accidentally introduced into the skull in fractures served as the basis of subsequent investigation by artificial insufflation. The first and foremost step was made by Dandy,1 who sought a method of visualizing tumors of the brain. In 1918, he successfully used air for ventriculography in a series of twenty cases, and in 1919, he obtained satisfactory visualization by lumbar injection.2 Two years later, Wideroe3 and Bingel4 independently used lumbar injection to demonstrate the obstruction caused by tumors of the spinal cord. They also found these studies valuable in visualizing the ventricles, basal cisterns and subarachnoid cortical spaces.
During subsequent years, encephalography was further substantiated by its correlation with findings at operation and autopsy (Kruse5), by the recognition of its dangers and complications (Koschewnikow6 and Grant7), by its revelation of a vast museum of pathologico-anatomic conditions in the living