"A CERTAIN CURE."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 79, 27 December 1907, Page 5

"A CERTAIN CURE."

RODENT DICER. RAYS OP RADIUM BROMIDE. ox lELKGiurn—ruEsa association—cortKloirr. (Rco. Dec. .26, 9.47 a.m.) London, December 25. Sir William Ramsay—discoverer, of helium, and winner of the Nobel prixo in chemistry in ' 1904 —in a letter to the " Standard," states that the rays of radium bromido aro a certain cure for rodent ulcer.

Quain's Dictionary of Medicine states that rodent ulcer must bo recognised as a kind of tumour; but its exact position among: other forms of now growth is still not absolutely decided. Most authors ngrco in classing it among, the epitlieliomata (tumour or cancer of the skin or mucous membrane)—a conclusion which the accumulated evidence of recent years tends to make practically certain. Rodent ulcor begins as a pimple usually on the upper part of the face, and most frequently oh fho side of the jiose or about the eye. After this has remained quiescent for a long time ulceration usually occurs, and continues to spread with great slowness, involving in its course every structure that it meets. In Tare cases, however, tliere is no ulceration, tho characteristic margin of the growth suroirnding a thin uniformly smooth cicatrix. Thus in time huge, caverns aro excavated in tlie faco, the oye-ball may bo destroyed, the, nose and upper,jaw may disappear, and not infrequently, if the disease reach the forehead, the dura mater is exposed, and the brain is seen pulsating at the bottom of the cavity. The usual treatment is free removal by the knife in the early stages.