ROYAL BRTIISH RADIUM INSTITUTE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 4

ROYAL BRTIISH RADIUM INSTITUTE.

— :■' '-- -* ~ . ■ t ■ ' ■ His. Majesty King-Edward^ has consenfedyto become .the patron' of .the. ..Royal British Radium Institute, which has been founded for the cure of disease by means of radium treatment. ■■ v . One section of the hospital will be reserved for the treatment of necessitous patients and another for well-to-do people. .Doctors., chemists, metallurgists and- mining men have been given a new interest in radium by Sir Fredr crick Troves' s recent description of the curative works which is bemg'done with it at the London Hospital (says a London correspondent) and . are speculating from their several points of view as to how the supplies can be increased. Abundant capital is avail*able for further work on the pitch blende deposits in Cornwall, but it is recognised that unless the very high cost of , the extraction process can be reduced radium will be continue to.be worth several "times its weight in gold, and will therefore be out of the reach of most medical men. It is -claimed, however, by one technical chemist, , Mr Henry Bailey, that he hasialready succeeded in finding a wayiof cheapening the production. Mme. Curie's method of dealing withpitch blende — afterwards adopted by Sir William Crodkes— was first to extract -the uranium, and_then from the latter to obtain the radium. Both operations were slow and very expen- . pensive. After making experiments, which have extended over several months, Mr Bailey is satisfied that radium, in conjunction with one or two associated elements, can be obtained at a lower cost directly from the.ore, and uranium treated as a byproduct. "The process is so simple," he says, "that it can be worked by an oidina'ry intelligent man accustomed to the routine of chemical works, and the impure radium extracted from the ore is' afterwards dealt with by the purification process employed by Mme. Curie, which, of course, requires a skilled ctoemist. The advantages of the process are 'simplicity of plant required, low working costs, short time needed to give a residue free from radium and containing all the cither metals usually associated' with pitch blende and mined in Cornwall. The actual cost per milligramme depends on the degree of concentration of the original ore and, on the radio-activity of the particular pitch blende under treatment." He believes that radium will in the near future be brought within the reach of the general practitioner, both as regards,, quantity and price.