In the January 5, 2016, on-line issue of Time magazine, an article by Lily Rothman entitled “See Incredible Vintage Photos of People Getting X-Rays” notes that “The world first learned about X-rays 120 years ago, Jan. 5, 1896.”

Ms. Rothman goes on to write that “The way the story goes, one of the earliest X-ray photographs ever taken was not made for particularly scientific purposes. As TIME later reported, Wilhelm Roentgen, the scientist who devised the process, took a picture of his wife’s hand ‘to make her appreciate the work he was doing and forgive him for having slighted her cooking.’”

An interesting, if uncredited, story that apparently has its genesis in a brief item in the December 20, 1948, issue of Time entitled “Skeleton’s Calling Card,” which is reproduced below.