The Savannah morning news., 1904-03-19
USE OF RADIUM IN THE HOME.
How 1t Cured "A violent Husband of
Wife-Beating Habit.
From the London Mail

from the LONDON Mall.
The experiments of scientists with
radium are daily revealing fresh cur
alive properties in that wonderful and
precious mineral. Perhaps the most
curious instance of its influence is that
recorded below of the cure of a SOM
nambulist who was addicted to wife
beating.
This was described yesterday by DR..
A. Darier, the eminent oculist In
an interesting conversation which our
Paris correspondent had with him, he
mentioned some curious results which
he had obtained in his work by ex-
perimenting with radium.
He recently treated a case of rodent
ulcer of the orbit, which had destroy
ed the ocular globe and all the It's
sues. Although the patient had for
two years suffered from pains so in
tolerable that during that period he
had not enjoyed a single nights rest,
his agony was completely and almost
instantly ended by the introduction of
radioactive powder.
External application of radium has
shown that it is a powerful agent
in calming neuralgia and rheumatls-
NAL pains, and in allaying the excru-
which cannot be operated upon. On
the other hand, DIR. Darier is bound
to admit that he failed to obtain any
definite result in so far as an i'm
provement of the vision itself is con-
cerned, and he does not regard as Sc
rious the talk of those who speak of
restoring sight to the blind.
In one case treated by the doctor
the woman, who had long suffered
from anilpnfiO fifc. and uid -
not had a single attack since radium
of weak intensity was applied to the
temple.
"Radium was also tried with sue
cess said DR.. Darier, ION a male pa
tent who suffered from strange SOM
nambulistic attacks during which he
would get up, maltreat his wife and
break everything within reach. Then
he would leave the house and roam
about the streets for two or three
hours, at the end of which time he
would return home, go to bed and fall
asleep again. So frequent did these
violent fits become that his wife left
him.
He came to me and treated him
with radium applications for twelve
days. Then he disappeared and l
heard nothing more of him for about
three months, when he and his wife
which he formerly suffered had gone
and that they were living together
again.
II have since treated other nervous
patients with radium. notably a lady
who suffered from photophohia, or fear
of the light. She was very neurasthen-
ic and believed that she was ataxic
She could not walk without falling, and
her eyes were so weak that she could
not bear the light of day, and had to
wear dark spectacles. / diagnosed her
trouble as neurasthenia of a hysterical
origin and l tried radium applications
of a stronger kind than in the cases
l have already mentioned, three hours
Per day on both temples. At the end
of the third day she could bear the
light without spectacles, and could
read and do needework.
1T may be that suggestion played an
important part in her cure. 1 do not
attempt to explain these successful re-
suits. and / do not give them as sci
entific facts upon which conclusions
may be based, but think they are
interesting as results obtained in ac-
tual practice.
These are only a few of the cases
in which 1 have found radium useful
in curing neuralgia and rheumatic
pains and headaches. Radium acts by
inhibition and counteracts the influ-
ence of nervous affections"