Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-01-18
ENGLISH SURGEON CURES
g Of 68 CANCER CASES
BY RAD|UM TREATMENT
Record Compares With Mortality of
100 Per Cent in Preceding Year.
Fourteenth Day of Case Marks
Crisis, His Experience Shows.

only 200 millgrams, and wanted .
grams
The directors of the British Radium
Corporation, Of which Sir Francis Fox
Is chairman, have issuel "A reply to
Or Lazarus Barlow's complaint re
gardinR the difficulty Of obtaining ra -
dunn. They say.
Great efforts were made for re
serving a supply Of radlum for the
hospitals of England, and a consider
able stock was held at their disposal
for over six months, but there were
delays on their part, and German buy
ers stepped in and purchased the en-
tire stock at higher prices than were
offered by the hospitals here. The
Germans also entered into contracts
with the company for considera bic
Quantities. which will keep the works
Of the company busy for the best part
Of the current year
With a view, however, to meeting
the demand Of English hospitals and
Tor the needs OF the surgical and med
ical world, the company Is erecting
new works capable of increasing the
output tivefold. These works, 1t is
expected, will be in gopera ton next
April"
Warns Against False Hopes.
Dr. Robert Knox director Of the
Electrical and Radio therapeutic De-
partment Of the Cancer Hospital. has
issued a warning against false hopes
as result of the reported radium
cures of cancer. He said to an inter
viewer to-day:
In regard to the value of radium
In the treatment of cancer one must
bear In mind that the percentage Of
cases receiving benefit from this treat
ment is small. Its action, so far as
we know at present, Is uncertain.
Gases have, or appear to have,
been cured by radium when they
would probably not have received
equal or as much benefit from other
methods of treatment so far as we
know, but In the interest of the public
II must be definitely pointed out that
these cases form very small per-
centage Of the cases actually treated.
Until we know more about its ac
ton, one is certainly not justified In
describing redium as specific cure
for cancer ! deprecate very strongly
the broadcast publicity which Is given
by some institutions in this and other
countries to the brilliant successes
obtained in suitable cases. but which,
after all, form only a small percentage
of the total This publicity gives rise
to great amount of false hope in the
minds of patients suffering from can
Ger, and their friends. and unfortu-
nateiy they are only too frequently
disappointed"
Value of the X-rays.
Dr. Knox in a conversation with d
representative of The Times empha-
sized the value OF the X-rays in the
treatment of cancer He said he had
used the N-rays In cancer cases as
well as radium, and in many cases
had had equally good results He be-
lieved ii very important to carry out
researches with the object of pruduC-
ing an %-ray tube which should emit
ray comparable in hardness" to
the radlum ray.
DR.. Knox said he had been ham
pered In his work by lack OF radium
but in any case he would have en-
ployed N-rays in cancer treatment
along with radium, The value of
N-rayS even at present, he said. was
not fully realized, There was a great
future for this treatment. He hoped
II would soon be possible to apply
N-rays in like fashion to radium
only the fringe OF the ray treatment
of cancer had as vet been touched.