Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-02-08
GIVEN RAD|UM
LYNNE. CURE,
CALLED|TFAKE
Surgeon Tells How He Scorned
Present From Fitted French
woman When 1t Was New.
WANTED IT FOR LIGHTING
Now Would Not Accept Any Sum
for Tube or for Letter From
Discoverer.

NEW YORK, Feb. THE tube
containing from ten to fifteen grains
Of radium, which has been in use FOR
the past three weeks in the treatment
of cancer cases in the Office of DIR.
Charles Russell Hancock, in West
Fifty second street, was a gift, it was
earned yesterday, from Nine. Curie
to its present owner, DR. G. H. carp
Thomas, of Bloomfield, n. J.
The gift was made in 1900, before
the real value of radium in surgery
vas known and when it was chiefly
renowned for other qualities. Dr..
carp Thomas did not take the gift Sc
riousy at first, as he had to pay some
small amount of cash for labor and
material used in preparing the ra-
dunn tubes, and he acknowledged ii
with an indignant letter to Nine. Gu
RE protesting against it as fake"
When the tube was made up, the
main purpose was to make the radium
as luminous as possible. Last night
in dark room Dr. carp Thomas tube
goWed brilliantly. He said that he
had seen samples of radium bromide
at Harvard University which had only
a small fraction of the luminosity that
his tube had.
Scorned Gift as "Fake."
While he scorned the gift as q
fake when it came to him, because
he had expected its quality of luml-
mostly to be quite different from what
it turned out to be, DIR. carp Thomas
said Yesterday he would not now
part with his radium for any sum of
money and that he would always
treasure his letter from Madame
Curie explaining that the article was
not a fraud and that the small guam
tity sent was all that could be fur
nished, as it was very hard to make
and could not be obtained in larger
quantities
In the thirteen years since he OBJ
tanned his radium DR.. carp Thomas
has used it in archaeological expert
ments, testing its effects on the little
forms of life to be seen only under the
microscope. He said there was a field
for the development of radium's use
in the baccilli as important as its use
funess among humans, Ind that Re
was contented to continue his expert
mentS in his own chosen field of bac-
terioIogy, leaving the medical field to
others
My father moved from England"
he said. and set up in New Zealand
an experimental laboratory for his
own pleasure. My brother Henry was
in Paris to complete his studies as a
dental surgeon, when he wrote home
to us about Nine Curie and her ex-
pertinent with radium. What he
emphasized to us was that 1T was
luminous.
Wanted 1t for Light.
The thought occurred to me that
1t would be a fine thing to obtain a
lot of this stuff and light our labOra-
would do as an illuminant. So we
took up a correspondence with Nine.
Cure. She replied with a long letter
IN French which we could not~make
out very we'll. But we gathered that
tube of radium would be sent to us
later and that it would be gift ir
recognition of the fact that the Aus
lralian Government had helped her
with donations of pitchblende. At the
same time she said there would be
charge for time in extracting this
particular tube of radium from the
pitchblende.
"Angry-why was hopping
mad. And that was what we had
paid our money for!. And we
We're expected to light our laboratory
with that! | sat down in hot indig-
nation and said that the tube con-
tanned a great deal less than | had
expected and didn't do anything like
What ! counted on.