THE RADIUM INSTITUTE AT WORK.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 91, 7 October 1911, Page 9

THE RADIUM INSTITUTE AT WORK.

CENTRES OF MANY HOPES.

With half a toaspoonful of radium, estimated to be worth £50,000, the new Radium Institute, established as the result of a suggestion made by lung Edward to his friends, Lord Iveagh and Sir Ernest Cassel, has begun its work. It is a centre of intense interest to the entire medical profession. English doctors exhibit an increasing disinclination to speak about cancer, or even to name it—perhaps because it has been the subject of so niauv illusory theories during the lust few years —and they have induced a large section of the press to share their reticence. The institute is to concern itself ostensibly with the treatment of various skin diseases and disfigurations, with diagnosis in doubtful eases, and with scientific research, but there is no secret that the investigation of cancer will be among the most important work attempted. Accommodation is provided for 150 patients, and only those personally recommended by the medical men who have been attending them will be received. Thus there will be economy of time and space. The place is not a ''hospital" in the ordinary sense of the term. The majority of the patients will attend at stated times—dailv as a rule —and will be examined and treated separately in small rooms uniformly furnished. Rich and poor will be given equal attention. Persons of means are to be charged such fees as they can afford to pay"; the poor will not have to pay anything. The only other difference is a trilling one, but characteristically English. Separate entrances to the institute have been provided for the two classes of patients. The radium to be used in the treatment is divided info minute quantities of various sizes. Each portion is placed on a, small metal disc and covered with shellac varnish to hold it in position, and this again is covered with a metal cap or "screen." The treatment lasts from three minutes to -10 hours, iiceonling to the character of Ihe disease attacked. When an application up to two hours is required, the radium screen is of aluminium. In eases where this time is exceeded a silver screen is used, and for the longest treatments the covering is of lead. The ''Gamma rays" are said to be capable of penetrating IS inches of lead.

The research laboratory l of the institute, in which the scientific study of malignant diseases is to be carried on. contains a valuable equipment—said to be the finest in the world—and special rooms for diagnosis are equally well fitted for their work. The medical superintendent is Mr. A. E. J lay ward Pinch, and several other well-known professional men are associated with him, including Sir Frederick Treves. The institute stands in a quiet side street in the West End, off Regent street, and is within a few minutes' walk of llarley street, the noted centre of the London specialists.