THE PROPOSED RADIUM INSTITUTE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1984, 14 February 1914, Page 6

THE PROPOSED RADIUM INSTITUTE.

■ —— i —* WHY THE .MOVEMENT SHOULD BE SUPPORTED. . ' ; (To the Editor.) Sir, —A recent Press notice, referring to the address given by the' Minister of Public Heiiith at the Medical Congress in Auckland, reports the Minister as saying:. "The time fflight come when it be, necessary for the State to institute a Radium Institute, for the ■ treatment of cancer. However, the development of tho-research, had hardly progressed far enough at present to warrant New Zealand entering into experiments in cancer research on anything like an extensive scale. But once they were past the experimental stage, and what proves to. be a euro has been discovered, it will be our duty to 'procure that, benefit for the people of this country." • . Might I say right now that tho time has arrived when it is tho duty of the .Statd and the people to erect a' wel.l--eqtiippcd Radium Institute. The Hon" ourablothe Premier and tho Minister of-Public Health have both been interviewed in Palmerston North in reference to this institute. Both gentlemen were most sympathetic, and assured vis that tho matter would receive the most careful consideration. The ' Radium Committee in Palmerston North ia confident that the matter sill receive careful and sympathetic consideration by the Cabinet'. A Radium Committee of prominent citizens has been, formed.'in Palmerston North under the presidency of Mr. Goring Johnston. The object of the committee is to collect funds for the establishment of a Radium- Institute. This institute is to be well equipped, and is to be under the controL of a medical man who lias had experience in, and a complete training ill, the treatment of disoaso'hy radium. This medical roan will require to devote his whole time to the working of the institute. Tho institute is to be for the North Island. Tho site of tho institute can be- decided on definitely when the necessary funds and support are available. The committee is not pledged, to any particular place, and is entirely above any parochial or partisan bias. The committed thinks that Palmerston North would be tho most central sito for this institute. If another site is decided upon by tho Government and subscribers, then the committee will loyally abido by that decision. Tho Minister of Public Health mentions radium as an experimental' treatment. In tho most friendly .way, I I should like to point out that radhtm treatment has advanced beyond being a nsero experiment. It is to-day an acknowledged and acccpted treatment in. certain .diseasos, .notably . malignant. dis"ase, rodent ulcers, certain, eye conditions, certain skin diseases. Ono may, of course, say that all 1 medical treatment is experimental. The doctor diagnoses a certain malady and he prescribes a certain remedy to combat that malady. That- remedy may bo looked upon as an experiment, at cure. Yet tho doctor ,lias his .experience and traditions behind him, assuring him that his treatment is not experimental, 1 Ono must not assume that because a

certain treatment has many failures to chronicle the treatment is useless or experimental. Against tho failures one must also chronicle the curcs.-To-day the anti-toxin treatment of diphtheria is accepted as tho recognised cure for diphtheria. Yet not every case of diphtheria is cured by the serum. Anti»tetanic serum is always kept in stock to treat any case of tetanus that may oecur. . Yet many cases of tetanus die, although they have had full closes of the scrum. Salvarsan is the accepted- treatment for syphilis. Yet. it will not euro . every case. A lino of unbroken successes is not necessary to establish a remedy as good and eiheient and beyondk the experimental stage. Our consumption sanatoria- built bv tho State to combat tuberculosis havo many successes, but more failures. Yot no ono will venture to say that these sanatoria are experimental and should be- done away ! wi'k. | So it is with radium. It lias had many start-ling and brilliant successes. It has | also had 'many failures. It .has cured t cases that were looked upon m hope- ; leSs. It has certainly cured many I cases of malignant disease that we.ro . beyond all surgical relief. In. other | cases it- has eased pain. It must be looted upon as one of the acknowledged and accepted treatments for malignantdisease. It is not claimed for radium that it will take tho place of surgery ; iu the treatment of malignant disease. It is a most valuable adjunct to surgery, and as said before it has certainly cured cases of cancer that were beyond surgical relief, Dr. Louis AVickham, of Paris, a pioneer and authority in radium, says: ; "To speak in a general way of the euro of cancer by radium without specifying and explaining circumstances is to use unscientific- and inexact language and too great enthusiasm in radium is a.pt to lead the doctor who possesses it to use it too much, aad thus deprive the patient of other proved forms of treatment, especially surgery; Radium can be used., as■ an auxiliary to surgical operations. After a cancer is removed surgically, radium can bo used to endeavour to prevent recurrence. It is difficult., without any exaggeration, not to recognise that radium therapy, as I have often repeated, has won its place m tho therapeutic armamentarium aid has born© definite and certain fruit in tho medical field," The .doctor in. charge of this electrical department of the London ' Hospital says; "Its power to satisfactorily deal with small rodent ulcers, carcin.oma.ta, and also many of the less malignant growths wheii of small sfee is a verv established fact,*' ■ • Dr. Abba says that he regards radium as a, "specific .for small superficial malignant growths," !: Sir Alfred jPoarco Gould, senior surgeon to Middlesex-Hospital, Londoii, ia a recent address said:; "I am justified hi saying that. in- radium wo have an agent that in many cases can be used in tho treatment of cancer with great hops of success, and that the selective action in the cancer cells marks it out from all other known ireiriedies for this disease, but this samo experience also scows that it would bo a gross exaggeration to speak glibly -of radium as the 'cure for cancer 1 in tho sense that !t'_will_ deal with any and every ease of this disease.". ' The editor of the -'"British -Medical Joiimal,"'in a recent roview of the subject, says: "The .-successful cases published cannot fail to raiso high hopes, but there havo. been many failures and disappointments, about which less is said. It is plain that in radium a new power is placcd in our hands for the treatment of cancer." The above articles are reasonable and straightforward. They'are' of sufficient weight to persuade the people of the- Dominion that radium should bo purchased for use in this country, London has a largo Radium Institute. Tho big hospitals of .lEdiahurgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, anrl New-castle-on-Tyne have it. In London alo.no the following hospitals have supplies : —St. Bartholomew's,' King's College, Middlesex, St, George's-, Westminster, Charing Cress, Great Northern, Chelsea Hospital for Women, St, John's Hospital fat Diseases of. the Skin. Germany has an institute at Berlin aftd'dne at Heidelberg, and her big hospitals All have supplies. The Austrian and 'German Governments will not at low radium to bo exported from tho country. All ihe European countries are using radium therapoutieaUy. The United States has' a '.big'.institute• at New York, ' Japan has ono at Tokio. Australia has a supply. ; New .Zealand stands out in romantic and solitary _ isolation' in not .having, a bo&pitaj or ■institute'properly equipped, with radium'. We have £2000 already subscribed' in Palmerston. North. Wo aro hoping that" Wellington will take Up the cross- and' carry 'on tho crusade. Mr. Goring -Johnston, tho president of the Radium Committee, will receive -any ■ contributions'; ■ Wo want £12,000. _ Everyone bliouH givo something—for it is to erect and equip an' institute' for' " tho North' Island. And everyone, should ' remember. that- • Affliction's sons aro brothers in distress. t A hrother to relieve—how exquisite the bliss. . —Lam,'etc., ~ . ARTHUR A. MARTIN. Palmerston North, February 12,1914.