The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-27
DR.. JULIAN'S GRAFTON
Metropolitan Hall Was Packed With
Doctors and Representative Raj
eigh Folks. Radium and Its Re-
Iation to Medicine Was What
DR.. Baskerville Lectur.
ed On.

lnInOfldllZe MS state IN the annals
OF chemistry, and who has taken his
place as the first American chemist
i'll rank with those few discoveries OF
the old world that have found new
elements in the material of the earth
lectured in Raleigh last night, and
charmed a great big audience com
posed of the visiting physicians and
many of the representative folks OF
Raleigh.
DR.. Baskerville's personality is
very pleasing. He speaks pure Eng
fish, without provincial accent or col
loqualism of any kind, is direct and
to the point in all that he says. In
appearance he is possibly a little
above the medium height slight or
build, but with a figure like that of
well set up West Point cadet. He
is smooth shaven and looks young,
with clear cut face, prominent chin,
firm mouth, straight nose, blue eyes,
low, broad forehead and light brown,
Slightly curling hair. He has the
confidence born of thorough mastery
OF the matter in hand and the salts
faction that the audience is aware of
the fact. Withal he is modest When
compelled to refer in passing to the
new element he said that it so hap
pened that at the University of North
Carolina Carolinium was discovered,
and a burst of applause greeted the
remark.
Such is the man who has discover
ed the last element in chemistry,
whose name will be called hereafter
in the same breath with Geissler,
Hittarf, Crooke, Madam Curie, Roent-
ger, BecQUerel.
DR.. Baskerville's lecture was for the
benefit of the Medical Society, and it
was given in Metropolitan Hall SC
that the public might have the ad-
vantage of hearing it also.
Before DR.. Baskerville's lecture,
Dr.. c. A. Julian, of Salisbury. deliv-
red the original grafton. His sub
ect was Aesculapian Dreams. He
raced from the beginning the history
f the science of medicine, down to
he latest discoveries of the scientist,
uch as radium and the X-rayS. 1t
vas now the hope that the properties
# radium and X-rays might be put
nto drugs, SO that their great power
night reach the seat of diseases them
selves DR.. Julian closed with an
eloquent tribute to the work of the
doctor.
DR.. Baskerville's subject was RAJ
dunn and Radio-Activity in Relation
to Medicine. He first recounted the
history of the light giving substance,
beginning with the discovery of the
Italian shoemaker, who found the
mineral substance that would dinuse
light after contact with a bright
light He told of the many expert
ments with radium and the Roentgen
rays, darkening the hall and exhibit
ing with the assistance of Mr.. Lock-
hart number of views of photo
graphs taken by means of radium and
the Roentgen rays. A broken leg
was shown, with the fractured bone
in clear view, and in like manner a
broken arm and a curvature of the
spine.
Speaking of the value Of radium,
Dr. Baskerville said it's cost was
fablous. 1t could be made from
pitch blende, but the proportion OF
radium was only about one-millonetn
of one per cent. The pure radium
was worth about $4,000 gramme,
and there was practically none of it
existent He had with him some
compounds of radium, loaned by
courtesy of the American Museum of
Natural History in New York. He
exhibited them in the darkened hall
and showed how they glowed with a
blush light. He showed the force
OF it through glass gutta percha, wood
and three inches of air.
Both radium and thorium. he said,
were like electricity at the same time
best understood and least understood.
Five thousand tons of pitch
blende would produce one pound OF
radium, and that would be impure.
Madam Currie, in Paris, had obtain
ed one-third of a grain from one
ton. 1t is less than the gold in the
waters Of the ocean.
Radium is constantly active, gen.
Grating heat all the time by its parti-
cIes bombarding one another, so to
speak. Without combustion. it yields
enough energy to lift against gravity
the orbit of Neptune, the outside fence
most of the solar system, thirty times
farther than the distance of the sun
from the earth.
IT will cure a number of skin dis
eases and it is known that it palliates
such organic disorders as cancer, but
there is little hope of its curing
cancer, although it may offer hope
for local treatment. Its great cost in
the best method seems to be one
which has been tried, of having sort
of loan shops, where it may be pro-
cured for certain rental.
Tails OF comets. the suns heat. the
earth's heat, have been accounted for
by radial activity. Whatever the
true theory may prove to be" con-
Guided DR.. Baskerville. 81 believe il
will be simple, for l like to fancy
scientific endeavor as the sea-calm
and serene, supporting ana mirroring
that which is below it. bearing that
which is upon it. reaching to and re-
necting that which is above it, NOV
ing all the while. yet, torn and rent,
at times by conflict from without and
contest within, it runs; it beats
against the shores of the unknown,
making rapid progress here, meeting
stubborn resistance there, comprising
it. to destroy but to rebuild elsewhere.
and the existence of those within ii.
Like that of Paul. our life should be
a consecrated unrest
DIR. baskerville was assisted in his
work with the apparatus by Dr. Fritz
Zerban, holder of one of the Carnegie
scholarships at the University, and
Mr.. Lockhart, also of the University.