Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-13
WANTSU.S. TO AID
NRAD|UM CURES
Dr.. Harvey Declares Govern-
ment Should Manufacture and
Furnish Precious Mineral.
BEYOND POOR MANS REACH
AT PRESENT TIME, HE SAYS
Nationwide Appeal to Congress
Planned-Warns Against False
Hopes of Disease Victims.


Characterizing radium as "the rich
mans cure" and cancer as 'sthe poor
mans disease" Dr. A. X p Harvey Of
Washington today declared that he in
tends to present for signature at the
next meeting of the Medical Society of
this city a petition to Congress to
have the federal government manufac-
ture and furnish radium. through the
public health service OF through local
boards Of health all over the United
States. to physicians for the use of
poor people.
Such a petition. DIR. Harvey said, will
not only be presented at the next
meeting of the Medical Society of the
District. which will take place the first
Tuesday in February, but he will at
once get In communication with lead
ing members of the medical societies
of New York. Chicago, San Francisco.
New Orleans and other cities through
out the United States in an effort to
make the appeal nationwide. in ac
cordance with the Importance of the
proposed movement
False Hopes Aroused.
Recent publications of the great cura-
tive properties of radium in cancer cases.
DR.. Harvey said today to a reporter for
The Star, have resulted in arousing
false hopes in the hearts of many poor
people. In common with other physicians
In Washington, / am daily receiving some
heart-breaking letters on this subject,
and 1 think the public ought to be made
to understand at once that they must not
indulge in such great hope, unless we can
find some way Of increasing the supply
of radium available to physicians.
''And. what is perhaps more important,
the public should be made to understand
that radium is not a cure-alf; that, in
fact. it will not cure any cancer after
the disease has passed to such a stage
that absorption has taken place. Dr.
Murphy, the cancer authority, says that
no cancer of the breast is absolutely
durable. That disease has returned as
much as eighteen years after an opera
ton, because cancer cells have been aba
sorbed and have developed elsewhere n
the body
Small Amount Here.
DR.. Harvey exhibited photographs of a
patient with cancer which had been
healed in three weeks by the application
of radium. He showed other pictures of
pdCentS WHO cOulQ nave DSeu CuTeQ d
sufficient supply of radium had been
available. The largest amount of radium
in Washington, he said, Is one lot of
thirty milligrams, worth about $1,000. It
amounts in bulk to about the size of a
grain and a half of rice.
THE Germans have done more with ra-
dium than physicians of any other coun-
try" DIR. Harvey said. THAT is be-
cause the Germans have more radium
than any other country. There they are
using it in internal cancers, opening the
wound and burying the radium inside,
where. because the supply is comparative
ly large In Germany, the radium can re-
main a long time.
1.-The success of radium depends largely
upon the amount used as compared with
the size of the disease growth. In cancer
cases there are always outlying cells in
healthy nearby tissues. The application
of radum kills these cells and prepares
for successful operation. 1t improves
the scar-tissue-gives new life to it.
I'm the past year the Germans have
done a, great deal through having large
quantities of radium. 1t is produced in
ture at present in the world, from pitch
blende, which is an oxid of uranium,
rare mineral, such oxid sometimes being
found In and near coal.
Germany Takes Hand.
'"The German government already has
taken hold of the problem of increasing
the supply and that is what the United
States government should do at once
The German government does not allow
pitch-blende to be exported. The thirty
milligrams which constitute the largest
lot of radium in Washington was made
in Germany from three tons of pitch
bende.
THE pitch-blende was put In a vat, and
precipitated, and the residum retained,
and this residum again precipitated, and
so on, over and over again, until the lit
tie speck of radium was obtained. The
process Is lengthy and expensive and
that is what makes the cost high. The
process requires from ten to fourteen
months.
mo physician in private practice can
ever hope to own enough radium to do
the work of his clientele in an ADEQUATE
manner. In Paris this is done differently.
A big jewelry concern there, a stock
company, owns large quantity of ra-
application and use are extremely sim
pie. A student could use II. This Jew
elry concern is an agent for all the ra-
dium used in France.
Not Manufactured in u. S.
.Radium Is not yet manufactured in
the United States, but it should be, and
in federal government laboratories, so
that it could be supplied to physicians,
for their poor patients. just as small
pox vaccine is furnished. just as diph-
iberia anti-toxin is furnished
LAS it stands now, radium because of
its great expense, is, in SO many words
a rich mans cure. whereas the fact is
that most of the people who have can
Ger statistics show, are poor people
THE public health service and the
state and city and county boards of
health all over the United States are
supplying vaccine against smallpox and
diphthera anti-toxin, free. The federal
government contributes now to many
hospitals in Washington, putting up the
money for these things Hundreds of
thousands of dollars are spent on the
public health service.
big sums are spent by the federal gov
ernment on army, navy and marine hos
pitals all over the world. II l have a
case Of a suspected typhoid fever patient
l can take drop Of his blood to the
board of health here, or a drop Of the
blood of patient with any other sus-
nected contagious disease, and tomorrow
morning / will be told by the board of
health whether that man has typhoid or
any other contagious disease.
THAT being SO. why shouldn't the fed
oral government take up the question Of
suppIying radium through the public
health service or through the local boards
of health all over the United States?