CANCER CAMPAIGN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3994, 30 September 1930, Page 34

CANCER CAMPAIGN.

RADIUM . EXPERT’S SERVICES.

WELLINGTON, September 22,

In order to decide in what quantity and what form further radium should be obtained, the services of Dr A. Burrows, radium,, adviser to the Health Department of the Commonwealth of Australia, is being sought. Prior to his Australian appointment Dr Burrows had a distinguished career at the Manchester Hadium institiite. On Dr Burrow’s advice, and after consultation with, the local MediJal Committee, radium centres were established in all the principal cities of the Commonwealth. Provision was made for the thorough and co-ordinated investigation of all cases of cancer attending these centres. The original Cancer Advisory Committee recommended that the Commonwealth should purchase 10 grammes of radium, six grammes of which were to be prepared in the forms recommended by Dr Burrows, and the remaining four grammes for' research and mass treatment and special purposes. The magnitude of this undertaking can be gauged from the fact that the cost of the radium alone represents £120,000. It is-agreed that in the four principal fcities of New Zealand the supply of radium is defective both in quantity and in form. There is, in fact, a similar shortage of radium in England. His Majesty the King gave for the purchase of radium almost the whole of the vefy large sum which he'received from the nation as a thanks-offering on his recovery from his illness. It is in order to decide in what quantity and in what form further radium should be got that the advice of such a

distinguished expert as Dr Burrows would be of great value.