The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-12
As. MEDICINE|
Properties Of Cheap Metal That
May Rival Radium.
IT COSTS ONLY 81 A POUND.

dunn Similar Radio Active Effects
Are Now Obtained-Rare Metal Dis
covered by Berselius IL Found In
Certain North Carolina Sands.
Through experiments now being
made by physicians and scientists IN
other substance with radio active prop
critics, known to scientists as tlorium,
may take the place of radium as a |
therapeutic agent and come into COM
NOR use for the treatment Of tubercu-
losis and other human ills. Thorium is
a rare metal, discovered in 1928 by Ber-
zelius, and is found in certain sands in
North Carolina, Brazil, Norway and
Sweden. It costs 81 a pound, while ra-
dunn costs 100000 a pound, with
quotations constantly going up.
During the last few years thorium
has been used chiefly for producing the
incandescence in nantes used on gas
burners, and it is only within a recent
period that physicians have been x
perimenting with 1t in a medical way.
DIR. Samuel G. Tracy Of New York
recently contributed En- article to the
Medical Record in which he describes
in detail some Of tie results of his ex-
periments with tne radio active prop
critics Of the metal. Photographic tests
made by DIR. Tracy have demonstrated
that it contains the same quality of
radio activity as radium, only in much
lesser degree.
With three broken nantes he was
able to get a fairly good negative in a
dark room with s~eventy-two hours ex-
posure. With oxide of thorium he OBJ
tanned a negative in forty-eight hours,
and with carnations Of hot thorium
oxide the same result was obtained in.
one hour.
In it's application IS a medical agent
the article says: 1.-THE radio activity en-
anates from thorium in every form,
whether in powder, solution. paste OF
ointment. The best results, however,
are likely to be obtained from the
gaseous emanations when used as an
inhalation. This form of emanation
may be obtained either by making a So
luton of the thorium nitrate or, better
still, by heating the oxide in a glass
receptacle. For external application
thorium may be made into a paste or a
% per cent ointment and used as an
antiseptic in chronic skin diseases, par
ticularly those of parasitic origin"
Description is given in the article Of
experiments made and apparatus used
by DR.. Soddy Of London and Hugo
Liber of Germany in the treatment OF
tuberculosis by thOrium inhalations.
The radio activity of thorium is many
thousand times less than that of radi-
um, and it differs in other respects.
Professor Ernest Rutherford Of Nc
Gill university, Montreal, says that
when theorium nitrate is changed into
an oxide by heat it temporarily loses it's
radio activity, but when exposed to the
air it soon regains it's activity. In four
days it is one and a half times more
active, in twelve days two and a half
times, and at the end Of two weeks it
reaches it's maximum radio activity,
"AlCA ~ 1OAL Nv 10 6AO0k AZ was AN
original nitrate of thOrium."
The emanations from radium do not
last as long as from thorium; there
fore, together with it's cheapness, it is
looked on as an important element in
the treatment of certain diseases if ex-
periments prove that its potency is as
great as scientists and physicians hope.
Tests already made have demonstrate
ed that thorium is as inimical to germ
life as radium, and experiments with
grape juice and other substances of
similar nature show that it prevents
fermentation.
Professor Rutherford was among the
first to investigate the properties of
thorium. His researches have done
more, perhaps, than has been effected
by any one else toward solving it's mys-
teries. In 1900 he discovered that 1t
gave off an inert and highly radio
active gas, which he termed "emana,
tion."
This gas diffuses through liquids and
even through porous substances. He
considers this emanation to be the re
suit of successive chemical changes
The emanation expels from itself 8
negatively charged body, which con
%4stitutes the Becquerel rays, the same
as those produced by radium, polonium
.actinium and uranium.
sSyracuse Cow" For Indians.
As the result Of a tour being made
through New York state by the Rev. s
W. Merrell of Oneida, Wis.,, a creamery