THE VALUE Or RADIUM

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 8 November 1912, Page 1

THE VALUE Or RADIUM

A great many sensational and impressive statements have been made regarding the value of radium, but it wou!3 appear that most of them have been •based on pure guess-work. The "Scientific American" has made a-n attempt to get at the truth of the matter, and the result of the information that -journal has obtained from the most reliable sources shows that the -quantity of radium in the world is so extremely small that the value of any stated quantityj likie that of very big diamonds, is purely nominal. Radium is. worth whatever its possessors can get for it. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there is probably not over two or three ounces of radium in the world to-day.' There are, however, several "radium banks'' in America and Europe, and these institutions do a remarkably lucrative business -by renting out to medical men tubes containing microscopic specks of radium at something like £lO . per day. While radium is known, to of some value in treating lupus, which is a form of tuberculosis, there, is little else km own concerning its medicinal value. The claim made for radium.; that, it is a curative agent in cases of cancer has not been borne out by experiments. •A little while.ago it was- reported that the Austrian Government had purchased the only two mines tinder private ownership producing the ores from which radium is made, thereby gaining. ;a monopoly of its manufacture. This repprt,is inaccurate. It is true that the Austrian mines and the, Austrian ■ Government hitherto have supplied the bulk of }he radium salts, but at present Sweden; is producing radium from kolnv Britain is' obtaining the ores from Welsh mines, and the United States supplies from mimes in Western Colorado. len tons of this ore produce .only 20 or 3U milligrammes of radium, and of manufacture is therefore highly expensive. .'" .