EFFECT OF RADIO-THERAPY

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5878, 3 April 1920, Page 2

EFFECT OF RADIO-THERAPY

" I IX CANCER AND TUBERCULAR ;' CASES. An important medical report Is shortly to be presented to the Medical Research comivj'ttoe t England) by specialists who have bce*u investigating the effect of radio-therapy, or, in less ttovht ri:'».-al liyignnrfe, 'doses'' of radium ' power. A Aery large quantity of nulio- ' active mateita.l is obtained from iru.ieused in the war. The lot was 'boiled

down" to produce five grammes of actual radium sii.lb. so highly powerful that it has to be Uo.pt in a lend safe weighing 1$ tons. It is probably the largest amount available in one plate for research work, and allthough only about a henjrld 'tablospoonful, is worth not far short of £IOO,OOO. So potent are these live snimmrs that ii a rat is imprisoned hi the I>U' lead safe, in which the container is placed i't dies in a day al:'d a balf. In order t'.> carry out the cancvr research w'ork the help of hundreds of pretty little tame rats —white, brown, yellow aid black—has" been enlisted. and. thong') they f< tally give up their I lives iVi the cause of lu man knowledge ! they spend a. happy enough time while I alive i'n their cages at the Jifiddlesex Hospital. In one of the laborities the rats can be drew nn X-ray bath, and by

| means o[ a;n 'ingenious arrangement the amount of radio activity thry receive can be mafliematieally worked out and pie value 'of its action upon disease assumed. The power of radium' is not only being applied to cancer and similar majilgnant growths, but also to tuberou- J lar eases. t So far medical science is only | on the edge "of a vast field of research ! in respect to its curative properties..