The Cairo bulletin., 1914-06-04
RAD|UM AS CURATIVE.
Iona Known to Possess Great
Remedial Powers.
English Scientist Says South Ameri-
can Natives Heard of II Many Years
Auo-Used, In Many Cases,
to Heal Wounds.

its curative effects.
Radium, says Mr.. Baker. has been
thing Of extreme fascination TO the
scientist. while the general public have
regarded it with mild curiosity. But
its recent effects in the treatment OF
cancer have made it a thing of alb
sorbing interest to the whole world.
There are various sources for OBJ
tanning radium. for it occurs always
| In a fixed proportion with the metal
uranium. Wherever we find uranium
| we are sure to find the oue-threemll
lionth part of radium with it. Pitch
| blende il the richest mineral. but GER
/ tain other substances. as autunite, tor
| benite and carnotite, contain small
quantities of uranium, and ii is from
| these three poorer minerals that the
| future supply of radium will very
| largely come, unless, of course, unfore-
seen fresh supplies of pitchblende are
| discovered.
The chemist finds himself with one
ton OF ore. md he knows by measure
| ment with delicate instruments that II
contains about ten milligrams, or less
than the sixth part Of grain, of ra
! dium! Imagine trying to extract
! grain of something from six tons OF
solid rock! But modern chemistry, to
which the name of radiochemistry has
now been given, has enabled this prob
lem TO be solved with such complete
success that by the most recent meth
DDS hardly any of this single grain is
lost during the tedious and long proc
ess Of extraction.
The result is that some months later
nearly the whole of the priceless grain
of radium Is extracted In an almost
pure state. and It's purity can be meas
ured against q special standard sample
prepared by Nine Curie which is KEEP
jealousy guarded at the international
bureau Of weights and measures al
Sevres, near Paris. This standard
sample Of pure radium chloride con
tains nearly twenty-five milligramf
sealed up in a thin glass tube, and
three other International standards
are kept at the Academy of Science IL
Vienna.
1t is quite a common thing wher
buying a large quantity of radium-b
this Is meant grain or two-to bu
It on condition that its purity be "frs
tested against one or other of the in
ternational standard specimens.
Radium water is being largely trie,
now in the treatment not OILY Of can
Ger. but OF various rheumatic ant
EQUITY troubles, and this water con
ssts of ordinary water charged with
the gas given off by radium and known
rs 'emanation." If some radium sail
be dissolved In water and left in Q
sealed vessel in about a month the
"emanation" gas which 1t produces
reaches a state of equilibrium aud II
can be expelled by boiling and passed
into water, which then possesses radio.
active qualities. This "emanation wa
ter" only retains its activity for &
short time, and in less than four day,
has become impoverished to less than
half its original value.
Al the radium institute two lots OF
radium are kept continually In use for
! making the water and while one is
resting. so to speak, for it's month, the
| other has produced enough water to 60
| on with for this month. One way
| of overcoming the difficulty OF the les
SEEMING effects is to increase the dose
| day by day, so that If you were to
| start today taking doses of table.
spoonful en- the fourth day you would
take two tabespoonfuls. and so OF.
But after the fourth day the radio
activity diminshes so rapidly that the
must be secured.
This Is the reason that spring wa
ters. which may give beneficial results
| on account Of containing radio.activity,
| must be drunk at the spring. for II
bottled and drunk perhaps weeks aft
| erward the radioactive properties
! have vanished
Many years ago the natives In some
South American district used to cove,
! their wounds with dust which they got
In the neighborhood made with water
into a kind Of pouitjce and recently Il
was discovered that there was radium
In the locality. so that years ago, quite
| ignorantly, the curative effects of ra.
dunn were already being employed
The residues obtained after all tho
radium has been extracted still con.
| tain minute traces of radio-aCtivity
and are used good deal on the con
tinent for plasters and baths. One Of
the uses to which they are most likely
TO be put, however, in the future is
| the acceleration of the growth of
crops Thorne Baker described re-
Gently at the Royal Society of Arts ex-
| periments in which he had obtained
| 100 per cent increase In weight In rad
| ishes and the surveyor to the board
| of agriculture at Truro. Mr.. Hender-
son. repeated these experiments with,
| in one case, even better results.