The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-11-21


The national observance of "Can-
Ger Week." when public-spirited. men,
most of them physicians, have shown
anew the tragic seriousness of cancer,
has again turned attention to radium
as one of the principal agencies for
coping with that appalling scourge.
Rad .um is not specific for cancer,
for which there is no specific, but it
has repeatedly proved to be of very.
great efficacy in the treatment not
only Of cancer but of some other dis
eases.
Almost simultaneously with Cancer
Week, according to the United States
Geological Survey. Department of the
Interior, there has been great drop
in the price of radium; instead of the
+ rmer price, $120,OOO per gram
(about 15.4 grains) of elemeneal ra-
dunn, the price now advertised is $7O,-
eco per gram.
A considerable reduction in price
had preceded this drop, because sew
eral manufacturers had on hand con-
siderable stocks of radium, which, ow-
ing to the present fincanial conditions,
were not sold readily. The recent
~reat drop, however, was not due to
his cause--it was due to the dis
covery in Katanga, in Belgian Kongo
Of large deposits Of very rich, easily
worked radium ores and to the erec-
ION Of a plant at Oolen, BELGIUM,
about 40 miles from Antwerp, for pro-
ducing radium from those ores.
Location of the Deposits.
These deposits are at Luiwishi ard
Easolo, near Elizamethville, in the ex-
treme southern part of Belgian Kon-
o, and consist of veins on the proper
ty Of the Union Miniere du Haut-Ka-
+arga, a BritiSh-Belgian company op-
Grating huge cooperbearing properties
in Kat"nga. The veins carry pitch
biende, which is in large part altered
to gummite, uranophane, and other
uranium minerals. A subsidiary COM
pany has been formed to extract the
radium, and considerable quantity Of
dium as the carnotite ores that have
heretofore governed the worlds mar
Iets has ben shipped to Belgium. No
data are at hand, however, to show
that in he aggregate the newly found
,"posits will eventually yield as much
radium as the deposits in the plateau
"cgion of the United States, though
considerable quantity can be pro-
1uced from the Katanga deposits at
much lower cost. and it is that cost
hat is ruling the radium market to-
day.
American Radium Mines Closed.
Recognizing the value of coopera-
ton, American companies, closing
down their own mines have undertak-
en- to market the African product, and
rad is therefore now offered at a
price lower than any that has prevail
ed since it became an object of COM
merce, and an opportunity is thus Civ
en- to branches of government, hos
pitfalls, doctors and philanthropists to
| obtain the precious material at min
imum expenditure, for it seems prob
able that he price will go no lower.
Eventually the principal source of ra-
dunn will again be the carnotite de-
posits Of the West, and when that
time comes, if not before, the price
will again rise.
4, GrpInunit" for Philaathropic
Work
The state Of New York and the city
f Philadelphia have each bought g
Grams Of radium for the use of their
citizens, and the province Of Quebec
has bought l gram. 1t is hoped that
other municipalities, States, of coun-
tries will buy radium at the present
advantageous rates, particularly as
the work done during Cancer Week is
likely to occasion great call on insti-
tuition for the treatment of cancer in
IS early stages, when it is most
amen BILE to treatment by radum.
Here is a remarkable oportunity for
Wealthy men to do something to help
sufferers from cancer and some other
malignant diseases that may be cured
b ythe use Of radium.