GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 224, 21 March 1914, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

THE PRICE OF RADIUM. That distinguished New Zealand"!', Sir Ernest Rutherford, F.H.S., his bc(n explaining the enormo.u rise ,n the price of radium. He says:—"The rr.ee of radium lias steadily' increased since its first production as a pursuit by Dr. dispel, when practically pu.v radium bromide was sold at a cost o; about £1 per milligram. jhe pri:e to-day is about £2O per miU'gram, and the demand for it is so treat'that it. is difficult to get orders fulfilled promptly, even for relatively snull quantities. While initially a certain amount of radium was bought br physical laboratories, the quantity so employed is comparatively small "compared with that absorbed by the medical profession. Probably '..be preater proportion of the radium now produced is bought either privately for therapeutic purposes or by hospitals for the treatment of special diseases, such as cancer and surface tumors-. The use of both radium and mesothoriiim for therapeutic purposes has increased very rapidly in the last few years : n Germany and France, and to a large extent in Great Britain. All scientific men nave been hoping for the last eight years that the price of radium would diminish, but the reverse has happened, and there does not appear any immediate likelihood of a large reduction of price, unless discoveries of large quantities of fairly high-grade ore are made." Professor Rutherford added that tlie uses of radium were confined entirely to therapy in hospitals or scientific experiments in laboratories, with the exception, possibly, of a small quantity employed in the manufacture of spin tharescopes and ratlin-n clocks.

CRITICISM. We're all so quick to criticise, and show where things are wrong! if someone makes a. batch of pies, or sings a soulful song, " the pies are pretty fierce," we say, "the song is on the blink"; it is our cheerful little way; it's graceful—l don't think. The housewife works about a week to tidy up the flat; then hubby comes and 'starts t oshriek :"Where have you hid my hat?" The windows have been nicely washed, the rugs are bright and clean; around the kitchen wife has sloshed with soap and gasoline. The husband doesn't notice that, but glares upon his frau; he cannot find his darned old hat, and so kicks up a row. "You ought to have some system, Jane," he says; "you should, by jings; it always gives my. leg a pain to hunt for missing things. When mother lived "so he declares, and talks for forty miles, and Jane sits on the cellar stairs and weeps in thirteen styles. Why not improve our carping ways, and cause less sighs and tears! Why not look round for things to praise, say once in seven years?— Walt Mason.