The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-01-27
RAD|UMNOT SURE
CURE FOR CANCER
It's Use Still Experimental, and
Many Cases End Fa-
tally.
OUTCOME is PRoBLEMATIcAL
Scientists Testify Before Com
mittce in Contest to Reserve
Ore-Bearing Lands.

| Washington. January 26.-Radium as
cure for cancer still Is In an expert
mental stage. and Its use in the treat
ment OF internal cancer results fatally
III large percentage OF cases, accord
Ing TO the testimony before the House
Mines Committee to-day OF DR.. VII
dunn Clinic OF Pennsylvania. DR..
Campbell told the committee that. SO
the ts are ba
be-"
is Il disappearance of the tumor; that
| Tho radiuIn causes the disintegration of
the tissue of the cancer, but something
is absorbed by the blood. and which
kills my patients ! cannot tell. no
body can TELL for. four. or five years.
just what the result will be-
How many of your patients have
died as a result of your treatment
| asked Representative Byrnc, OF South
Carolina.
Two Out of Five End Fatally.
finally said that two out. of five of the
cases treated ended fatally. He added
that all were cases where the dis
case would have resulted in death in
few months without treatment.
DR.. Campbell said that at the pres
ent price of radium, the cost to pa
tienta ought not to be prohibitive. Il
can treat patients at 4 cents per MILL
gram of radiuIn per hour on an invest
in {, year he declared.
DR.. Francis Il. Donaghue, of Boston.
any, legislation for protecting, the
radium supply Substitutes for radium"
He said tina; moso- thoriurn,, a much
cheaper product than radium. was
James. c. Gray. general counsel for
the Radium Chemical Company, told
had relieved him OF cancer. after sew
, eral Ineffective operations. He OPP
posed government Interference with
the production of radlufn.
DR.. John T. Anderson. director OF
the hygienic laboratory. OF the United
! States Public Health Service. declared
| a position to take charge OF the pro-
duction of radium for the benefit of the
Secretary of the Interior Lane told
| the committee that Congress should
break UP the monopoly that keeps
radium at fabulously prohibtive
| price. and enact legislation to put the
| curative mineral OF the market cheap
| ly for large numbers of sufferers. He
the mineral or lands indefinitely, but
| simply to get radium out for public
use, where it would not be in the hands
Proposal Of Secretary.
! Secretary Lanes proposal was TO di-
vide certain area into tracts Of $50
pect, and ii a prospector found radium
I to allow him all the usual rights, ex-
ecept that the government would take
! 20 or 70 per cent OF the radium OBJ
tanned. He would give the govern
ment absolute control over a certain
definite area for the development OF
! radium on ills own initiative.
| IL believe that we should not be con-
! fined to developing the ores on any
single withdrawn area" said Secre-
tary Lane. we should say 10 all the
I prospectors in the West: Go out and
! find these ores the government will
! buy the ore from YOU at reasonable
compensatory price. and will reduce
I the ores ourselves Thus we would
/ be discovered at our service.
We have demands from tho United
| States hospitals for more radium than
i we can hope TO secure III the near flu