RADIUS VAPOUR.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 2 October 1914, Page 2

RADIUS VAPOUR.

BOTTLED ENERGY,

Persistent and unwearying research work at the Radium Institute in Hiding House-street, Portlandplace, has resulted (says the London '-Daily Telegraph") in a discovery, the only parallel to which, in the words of Sir Frederick Treves, is to he found in the burning bush of Moses. The announcement, ' which is of the greatest importance, since it widens immensely the field of radium therapy, was made to a number of visitors who were invited to inspect the institute. It is known to scientists that radium gives off a gas which is called emanation, and it has now! been proved at the London Institute that this emanation is as efficient for curative purposes as radium itself. Furthermore, means -have been found by which it can be conveyed to medical men all over the country for use among their own patients. The emanation, or gas, or power—how it is described matters little to the lay mind—is given off constantly, and yet never weakens the parent substance, which, indeed, repeats the miracle of the witlow's cruse. The tremendous value of this discovery is at once apparent. Just four grammes of radium are in the possession of the institute, this amount being worth the sum of =£80,000, the reputed prices of radium being £20 per. milligramme. or° and a half grammes are specially set aside for the production of the emanation, the remainder being used in the every-day treatment of visiting patients. It is estimated that radium falls to half-strength in from 2,000 or 2,r>00 years, so that many generations will pass before there n&ed be any fear of reduction in the quantity of emanation available. CANCER TREATMENT. Sir Frederick Treves, who is chairman of the executive committee of the Radium Institute, explained to a representative of the "Telegraph" how the discovery was being- utilised. For the conveyance of the emanation, he said, they had invented hollow plates and tubes, into which by a special process the gas was drawn and then fixed hy being j put in liquid air. The power sank to a half in 35 days, and finally vanished. The medical adviser of a put:..'nt who required an application of, for instance 50 milligrammes of radium—the value of the actual substance would be £.I,ooo— would receive a plate containing emanation of the equivalent of that quantity. As for the cost, the doctor who wanted a tube of 100 ! milligrammes would be charged twelve guineas for its use for 24 hours. He would receive with it instructions for the application. In the last ten days the institute had sent,out .13 pieces of apparatus representing 860 milligrammes, the equivalent value in radium proper being £17,200. "We have demonstrated," Sir Frederick) went on, "thiii the emanation is positively the same therapeutically as radium. One gramme of radium gives 1(50 milligrammes of emanation in 24----hours.'' Questioned in regard to radium treatment, for cancer, Sir Frederick Treves stated, "The aspect is emphatically more reassuring and satisfactory than it was a year ago and we are still getting what we call cures. We stick to the term, ' apparent cure.' " Another branch of the institute's work was described by Mr. A. E. Hayward Pinch, the medical superintendent, namely, radium water. Some 500 bottles of this water are being sent out every week, and Mr. Pinch characterised the results of drinking it as wonderful. The radium or emanation water—here again the process of preparation takes away nothing from the original substance—is four or five times as strong as the best known spa water, and is not unpleasant in taste. It has been tried in a groat many cases of arthritis deformans, a generic terra for some affections of the joints, such as rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic gout, gout, and rheumatism. Out of every 100 casee so treated the benefit is 40 per cent, has been most marked. The course of treatment consists of drinking half a pint of the emanation water six days a week for six weeks, though more than one course may be necessary. j