Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-18
ADMIT ERROR IN
RAD|UM TREATING
Find That Gamma Rays Dc
Harm Instead of Relieve.
To Use Beta Rays.

NEW YORK, Feb. 1s.-Dr. Rob-
ert Able, who began eleven years
ago to use radium in the treat
ment of cancer, told members OF the
Radium Institute of America, at a
meeting at Columbia University yes
terday afternoon, that experiments
conducted under his direction by DR..
Alexis Carrei, of the Rockefeller In
stitute for Medical Research, had
convinced him that the central theory
of radium's action, under which he
had proceeded up to this time, was
entirely wrong.
He said that a most important re-
port upon the new experiments had
been transmitted to him by DR.. Car
rel only yesterday morning, while he
was preparing his address for the
Radium Institute. The experiments,
he said. would probably cause radical
changes in his own methods of ap-
plying radium, and also in the meth
DDS of other surgeons, since they
demonstrated that the beta rays of
radium, which have heretofore been
considered dangerous and have been
kept away from contact with the pa
tient as much as possible, have an
effect upon cancer that Is more heal
ing even than the gamma rays, now
30 generally relied upon.
"My Theories Were Wrong"
II worked out nice little theory
/, about radium," said DIR. Able, but
the work of DR.. Carrel has convinced
me that was wrong. His expert
ments are only just beginning Where
thew will eud T will NOT atan1nf 10
forecast, except to suggest that with
In five years from now we will know
vastly more about radium than we
know at this time.
II wanted to see what would hap.
pen in living tissues IL the -radium
were applied so that only the beta
rays could reach the tissue. Now, for
this purpose, Dr.~Carrel was invalu-
able. He took some living tissue
from a chickens leg two and a half
years ago and put this tissue in a
culture In which it remained alive.
II asked DIR. Carrel to put, some of
his living tissue In such a position
near an electric magnet that only the
beta rays could reach it. L asked him
to placeSso of the tissue in such a
position, that only the gamma rays
could reach it. Now, if our theories
about radium were right and the
gamma rays was the one to depend
upon for stopping cellular growth,
this experiment should have shown
that the tissue placed in contact with
gamma rays alone would have been
most retarded in its growth. I was
surprised by the actual report. 1t
was that the bit of tissue placed un-
der the beta rays, which we have
thought of little or no value, actual
ly showed great diminution of
vitality. On the other hand, the tissue
placed where only the gamma rays,
which we have thought so dependable,
could reach it. showed scarcely any
result at all. That tissue went on
growing as if no application of radium
had been made"
Can Apply Beta Rays Alone.
DIR. Able exhibited photograph of
a new machine, built for him by Pro-
fessor Pegram. of Columbia Univer-
sity in which he can apply the beta
ray alone to cancerous growths and
other abnormal growths of cellular
tissue. For the present, he said, he
was using the machine only upon pa
tients whose hands were covered with
the comparatively harmless aff1iction
of warts. 1t consisted, he said, of a
large electric magnet so arranged
that the patients hand could be
placed In the field where any one of
the three rays given off by radium
were playing.
This new method of studying the
isolated rays emitted by radium," he
said. will end our period of confu-
sion as to the qualities of each ray.
know that the action of each ray is
different from the others, but more
work under DIR. Carrots cautious hand
and on the part of others will be
needed before we can assign to each
division of the isolated rays its exact
role"