The Curies 61 



few inches over the heads of a family of young mice 

 rapidly kills them, and the effect upon the larvae of grubs 

 of meal-worms is still more astonishing. These radium- 

 ized grubs never turn into beetles, but remain worms for 

 the rest of their existence. 



Doctors soon realized that rays which had so powerful a 

 destructive action might have great value as a curative 

 agent. The first use to which radium was put was the 

 cure of warts. The common wart, though most people 

 think little of it, can become a very serious trouble. It 

 may occur, for instance, on the sole of the foot and make 

 the sufferer quite lame, or on the eyelid, with danger to 

 the sight. Warts have been known to appear on the 

 tongue, and even under a fingernail. 



A surgeon, of course, can cut out a wart, but it is very 

 apt to return. Dr Abbe began to experiment with two 

 and a half grains of radium supplied by Mme Curie, 

 and soon found that one thirty-minute application of 

 radium would cure any wart. What is more, there is no 

 scar left as is the case when the surgeon's knife has been 

 used. Dr Abbe had as a patient a girl with a beautiful 

 voice. A wart developed on her vocal cords. It was cut 

 out, but came again, and a second time the same thing 

 happened. The poor girl began to lose her voice, and, 

 worse still, the growth increased in size until it threatened 

 to choke her. Radium was used — simply held over the 

 wart for about half an hour. Within a very short time 

 the wart began to disappear. The girl was able to breathe 

 comfortably, her voice came back, and before long she 

 was as well as she had ever been in her life. When 

 doctors realized what radium could do in removing warts 

 they began to try its effects on more dangerous growths, 

 and to-day radium is the chief weapon with which 

 doctors fight that most terrible disease, cancer. 



Since those early days many discoveries have been 

 made. Radium is now known to emit three different 



