RADIUM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 935, 24 December 1910, Page 3

RADIUM.

FOR THE DISTRICT HOSPITAL. Dr. MARTIN’S REPORT. The following is the copy of Dr. Martin’s report to the Palmerston North District Hospital Board re his suggestion of the purchase of radium for the. District Hospital:—

There is at present a proposal before the Hospital Board to endeavour to collect ,£3OOO for the purchase of radium. This sum pins the Government subsidy would total It is the hope of the Hospital Board that the people of this district will contribute the amount named. The question at uiicc arises: “is it justifiable to collect this amount? Will the presence ol ,£6OOO worth of radium in this district put a proved healing agent in the hands of the medical profession ? Is there any probability of this quantity of radium curing or illeviatiug any diseases which cannot otherwise be cured or illeviated ?” To answer these questions one cannot turn to one’s own judgment or experience, we must accept the statements of proved men who have had experience in the treatment of disease with radium. The extremely limited quantity in New Zealand cannot justify us in forming any definite conclusions. Opinions as to the therapeutic value of radium differ. All opinions, however, assure us that it has an undoubted therapeutic value—that it has a healing action. It is an agent which acts like Xrays, but it has a more intensive action than the X-rays; radium has cured many cases where Xrays has failed. I shall quote as briefly as 1 can, and in language “ understandable by the people,” some of the opinions of men whose names carry considerable weight in the medical world. Sir Frederick Treves says he saw one case in Paris of cancer in the face which had remained cured at the end of two years from the date of treatment by radium. He saw several cases of rodent ulcers cured by radium where X-rays and Finsen Light had failed. Treves strikes a very optimistic note about the value of this new agent, but also sounds a warning note about raising false hopes in discussing the potentialities of a little-known remedy. Dr Domiuici, in Paris, has obtained most encouraging and some remarkable results in the treatment of cancer by introducing radium into the substance of turners which were regarded as iuopciauie—some were cured, soon relieved, and others put into a co.uTikm where operation could be a e-. >ied. Drs Wickham and Degrais confirmed the conclusions of Dr Daules that it affords the best means of dealing with small canceroids. Dr Sequiera, at the International Medical Congress in Brussels in 1908, says the cases in which radium can be employed are few. It is impossible to apply it to any large area on account of the small quantity at command. The editor of the British Medical Journal, in a leading article, says: “The question of the hour in medicine is the healing power of radium, publicity of which there are few instances on record.’’ “Enough has been said to make out a prima facie case for radium as at least a useful adjunct in the treatment of cancer.” Dr Merten, chief of the electrical department of the Loudon Hospital, says: “Its power to satisfactorily deal with small rodent ulcers, carciueraata, and also many of the less malignant growths when of small size—is a well-established fact. But once the growth has attained the size of, say, a filbert, the use of a few milligrams of radium is not very successful, and in our opinion this is due to the small quantity and not to any lack of power on the part of the radium itself.’’ The same writer mentions Abbe’s work with radium. “ FI is success in the treatment of cancerous growths about the head and face is very remarkable.” Abbe himself is inclined to regard radium as a ‘‘specific for small superficial malignant growths.” Drs Wickham and Degrais, ol Paris, two of the most earnest and weighty \v.:ke:s in the treatment of disease by radium, summarised their results obtained in the Radium Institute of Paris. They succeeded in curing or improving a number of cases of cutaneous and subcutaneous turners, cancers, etc., affecting skin, uterus, em. They spoke of happy results in various skin affections. Dr Louis Wickham, writing of 600 cases treated during the last live years, says : “ From a study of some cases of several varieties of cancer, the malignant evolution of these turners may not only be arrested ■ for months, but that occasionally these turners have entirely disappeared.” “ Radium cannot at present have other pretentions than to act on lesions which are localised and sufficiently accessible or rendered accessible.” He sums up : “ To speak in a general way of the cure of cancer by radium without specifying and explaining circumstances is to use unscientific and inexact language, and too great enthusiasm in radium is apt , to lead the doctor who possesses it to use it too much, and thus deprive the patient of other proved lorms of treatment, especially surgery. Radium can be used as fe an auxiliary to surgical opera- [ tions. After a cancer is removed I surgically, radium can be used to endeavour to prevent recurrence. Here it is better than X-rays, on account of the penetrating power of radium. If the surgeon is uuI able to intervene on account, not of the gravity of the cancer, but because the conditions or age of 1 the patient prevents, then radium

can be applied. It is difficult, without any exaggeration, not to recognise that radium therapy, as I have often repeated, has won its place in the therapeutic armamentarium, and has born definite and certain fruit in the medical field.’' A radium factory has been established atLimehouse, Loudon. It will be ready to produce radium in less than a year from the heaps of pitch-blend accumulated near old copper mines in Cornwall. The separation of the radium from the ore will only occupy —thanks to the new secret process which has been elaborated by Sir Win. Ramsay—some seven or eight weeks, instead of iS months as at present. When first produced radium chloride cost 8s a milligram. The price is now /dS a milligram, or /500000 an ounce. Sir Wm. Ramsay said that what prompted him to produce radium on a wider scale than hitherto was its scientific and medical interest. Another fact stated was that he intended to be patriotic and to supply the United Kingdom and the colonies before supplying foreign countries. In a case of this sort it was only just to be selfish. Tbs Austrian and German Governments will not allow radium to be exported, and England should look after itself too. (The only unfortunate thing about this factory is that it is a company of shareholders ; the shareholders will expect dividends from the sale of radium, and thus keep up the price.) A radium factory has been established in New York. It is proposed to establish a Clinical Department for the free treatment of the poor. A Radium Institute for the treatment of disease by radium has also been established in London. It has on its Committee Lord Iveagh, Sir Krnest Cassel, Sir Frederick Treves, Sir Malcolm Morris, Sir W. Ramsay, Professor Sir J. J. Thompson and the Hon, R. J. Strutt. The Institute is situated near Portland Place in Loudon. I have written you the above opinions, sir, in order that you and your Board may be able to form an unbiassed decision re the purchase of radium. With such a weight of evidence the Board, in my opinion, cannot err in at once endeavouring to obtain the sum mentioned. It is ray intention to write to the Committee of the Radium Institute in London and ask its opinion on the question of the adviseableness of purchasing this quantity of radium. In the purchase of the radium we could be guided by this Committee, and purchase the radium through Sir Wm. Ramsay from the factory at Limehouse, London. I shall submit the reply of this Committee to the Hospital Board. My idea is lor a Radium Depot to be established at the Hospital for the treatment of suitable cases. Cases at the Hospital would be treated by the medical staff only. If any other doctor, practising in this district, desired to treat any patients privately he would require to pay the Hospital Board for the loan of the radium, and also give a guarantee for the value of the radium lent in case of loss or damage. All cases treated at the Public Hospital would be treated free of charge, provided they were residents in this Hospital district. Rich as well as poor would be treated free at the Hospital, provided that the case was suited for the application of radium. We should all work together in this matter. All the doctors should have liberty to access to the Radium, but patients treated at the Public Hospital should only be treated by members of the Hospital medical staff. It might in time be necessary to appoint a doctor to take sole charge of this treatment at the Hospital, for certainly it could not be done on a large scale by the surgeons at the Hospital. Speaking for myself 1 should like to send such cases to be treated by a man who is constantly using the Radium, and who could accurately measure the dosage. lam ambitious about the scheme I wish to see eventually a Radium Institute established in Palmerston under the aegis of the Board, where patients from all parts of the North Island could be treated. Ido not see why we could not collect /3000 for .this purpose and establish an Institute on a proper basis under a man wbo would devote his whole lime to Radium thereapy. For such a purpose we would have to act Peter the Hermit and stir up a crusade for funds over the whole of the Island. Palmerston is centrally situated, and is the most suitable place for such an Institute. In tue words of Burns : Afflictions sons are brothers in distress A brother to relieve! Flow exquisite the Bliss.