Arizona republican., 1904-03-28

gamblers who reason that the red must turn up soon, and each new message from the aboratory-aEybody's labor atory,-finds a cohort of zealous be- lievers. especially if it be a message of healing to the sorely afflicted. There are the sadness and the wickedness of it, for sufferers by tens of thousands put vain trust in these nasty an- nouncements, these deceptions of half Knowledge, and believe that now, at length, they are to be rid of their ills. Think Of the man whose wife is stricken with cancer and who is as- sured. on the authority of distinguish ed names, (and this happens daily) that radium will cure cancer, and then finds that there was some mistake the writer misunderstood what the doctor said, or the doctor was over-sanguine. and the fact is that radium will only cure some cancers-sometimes! Think of the consumptives, millions of them, who are told Gas they have been told.) that radioactive air will conquer their maladyi It seems very simple: radium kills germs, hence radioactive air taken into the lungs must destroy a germ disease. But again investigation leads to disappointment; there is need of more experiments; there is lack of radium. and anyhow the thing is doubtful. Radium may cure consump- ton, some day, or it may not; it cer- tainly will not now, and the man who has the disease wants to be cured now.-or let alone.
 Il speak thus positively about the cure of consumption by radium be- cause I know of at least one shrewd speeHlator in human misery who pro poses soon to start a sort of radium eoEsamptien farm where he will ad- xeTttse to dc wonders for affected IGRgs by means of radioactive air. ass4 haR9scme fees. No doubt, If he sets Ep his establishment in Colorado e tke Adirondacks, his patients may has beseated,-with the radium or with est it. Eventually the radium may Sss geed. fer the theory may prove sound, bat people should know that thSs far theTe is an entire lack of evi- 9eHee freIA reputable physicians to show that FaGium has actually cured cases of consumption. Years must pass before we can have any certain knowledge on the subject. There must be a nsassing of evidence from many hospitals, and time to take note of re- lapses. Think what a slow, insidious disease consumption isl Remember the Koch consumption cure which did not c1ret Remember what the X-rays were to do for consumption, but did not do!
 Even should 1t ultimately be shown that consumption may be cured by the use Of radioactive air, there still remains the problem of finding a sufficient supply of radium to bestow these precious properties upon the air. Great quantities of this air would be needed,-think of the army of con- sumptives.-and there is very little radium in the world,-only an ounce or so of the highly purified product, and that is enormously expensive. To be sure, we read of radium deposits in various parts of America, and we are told that soon, with better processes of refining, the price will fall from a million dollars pound. or there abouts, to something reasonable. As matter of fact the price of radium has been steadily advancing for the past six months, as is shown by figures which I have from the largest radium importer in New York, who informs me that a quantity of radium (ten milligrams,) which today sells for two hundred dollars would have cost only seventy-five dollars four months ago, and only sixty dollars six months ago. This is because the Austrian govern ment has refused to export any more of the pitchblende refuse from it's uranium mines in Bohemia, and this refuse is practically the sole supply of radlum in the world. The radium de- posits elsewhere, as in Saxony Corn wall. and Colorado. are far inferior to these. and, furthermore, America is far behind France in the practical business of refining radium."
 From the beginning of the sensation al claims for radium American physi- clans have remained doubtful of its practical value as a curative agent and, unfortunately. the latest results justify their conclusions.