RADIUM AND DISEASE

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14770, 8 October 1921, Page 5

RADIUM AND DISEASE

SIR T. PARKINSON’S VIEWS COMBATTED BY OTHER EXPERTS. GREATEST AGENT YET DISCOVERED (Australian and N.Z. Gable Assn.) Received October 8, 8.45 a.m. LONDON, October 6, In reference to Hie interview of Sir Thomas Parkinson, at Auckland, in which be allegedly declared that radium had proved a failure, Professor Lazarus Barlow, director of the cancer research laboratories at the Middlesex Hospital, as the result of the continuous use of radium for 16 years, declares: “I was never more confident that it is one of the greatest agents in the treatment of disease ever discovered. it lias effected the most re-' markable results in cancer cases,* though only known for 20 years where-, as the knowledge of surgery has been growing with the ages. Yet who will declare that every surgical operation Ls a success? I believe wo are only on the thrcsh-hold of the benefits accruing from radium.” Professor Barlow has recently been conducting experiments in radium, through which he has made important extensions in the knowledge of its use, ami he declares that more research is wanted. Past failures were not the fault of radium, but of the operators.

Fir William Milligan, of the Manchester Radium Institute, expressed' the opinion that Sir T. Parkinson’s knowledge of radium is not extensive. Evidence provided through the London and Manchester Radium Institutes was quite contrary to Sir Thomas' experiences, and apparently he is not acquainted with foreign literature, which showed that distinguished Continental surgeons had entirely discarded cutting in favour of radium treatment.