Radium and X-Rays

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 69, 15 December 1923, Page 15

Radium and X-Rays

Co-operation Described Transmissible Emanation The purposes of the Radium (Radiation) Appeal is to raise by public subscription £lO,OOO (net), which amount (plus Government subsidy) will enable the establishing at Wellington Hospital of a Radium Department, where Radiation treatment (by Radium and X-rays) will be available, and from which Radium emanation will be distributed over an effective radiue of the middle belt of the Dominion, north and south of Cook Strait. EMANATION SERVICE HAS WIDE RADIUS The Radium Department will thus render available both forms of Radiation treatment. Each of these, Radium and X-Rays, has its special uses. But, by the utilisation of its transmissible emanation, Radium will enable the Radium Department to send help to the sufferer in his home-town—New Plymouth, or Taumarunui, Napier, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Masterton, Blenheim, Nelson, Motueka, Glenhope, Seddon; in fact to any place that is naturally served from this geographical centre, Wellington. It will be seen that the use of Radium, and of Radium emanation, enables the mountain to come to Mahomet, if Mahomet, through hie illness or other cause, is not able to go to the mountain. This is a point for country people to note. Do Radium and X-Rays work well in co-operative utilisation? According to Dr. James T. Case, of Battle Creek, Michigan, those X-Rays that are highly penetrating “have many advantages over Radium for external application, although Radium will be more than ever in demand for use in tumours and in the cavities of the body.” Herein is outlined a suggestive division of labour between two of mankind’s disease-repelling agencies. X-RAY ADVANCES INSPIRED BY RADIUM Concerning the above-mentioned highly-penetrating X-Rays, it is interesting to note how the use of Radium stimulated the improving of the X-Rays apparatus. Dr. Case states that shortly after Roentgen’s discovery, of X-Rays, interest began to centre in producing X-Rays of a more penetrating character. The early X-Rays treatment found its field in certain skin cancers. Deeper work—deeply-seated malignant tissues—then challenged it. , But the shallow rays did not produce marked results, except in the case of. lesions located on the skin, or fairly close to it. Then entered Radium, to show X-Rays the next step. Or, as Dr. Case puts it, “the introduction of Radium, with its highly-penetrating gamma rays, made possible the conquest of a few deeply-seated cancers previously regarded as intractable, thus demonstrating the efficacy of very penetrating rays when appropriately administered. This greater success of Radium is in large part due to its compactness, which permits its application in close contact with the disease, or by actually burying it in the cancer growth during a surgical operation. . . . The success of Raxlium, where the X-Rays had failed, led at once to the recognition of the importance of securing more penetrating X-Rays, for the gamma rays of Radium have a shorter wave-length and are therefore much more penetrating than the shortest wave-lengthened X-Rays produced up to the time Radium was generally accepted for the treatment of deep cancerous growths.” HIGH VOLTAGE ADVANCES Dr. Case proceeds to show the scientific advances—including high voltages—by means of which the highly-penetrating X-Rays were developed, leading up to his general conclusion, stated above. He is careful not to exaggerate the results produced by X-Rays and Radium, either separately or m combination. “But,” he writes, “it is riot too much to admit that the results are most encouraging.” This statement, from the X-Rays side, of the value of X-Rays and Radium, in co-operation, is important. The Radium (Radiation) Appeal is backed by the British Medical Association. Subscriptions are already reaching the secretary, Mr. G. Mitchell, whose office is in the Exchange Buildings, Dominion Avenue, off Lamb’ton. Quay. Subscriptions may be sent to the secretary or to the City Treasurer, Town Hall, or to The Dominion.