1012] on Vital Efecfs of Radium and other Rays. 805 



Apparalm. — For convenience of application, those who possessed 

 a large (|nantity of radium spread it on surfaces protected by varnish. 

 This enabled a large area to be treated, and, as the material interposed 

 lietween apparatus and screen was slight, it allowed a considei-al)le 

 quantity of radiations to pass and impinge upon the skin. Dr. 

 Dominici, of I'aris, was the first to use dense metals, such as lead and 

 platinum, also gold and silver, for screening purposes. By this means 

 the less penetrating beta rays were stopped, and only the gamma rays 

 and beta rays of high penetrability were able to traverse the filter. 

 Thus prolonged exposure became possil)le without injury to the skin, 

 and the deeper parts that it was desired to affect could readily l)e 

 reached. By means of these metallic filters, which can be made of 

 different material and of different thickness, rays of any desired pene- 

 ti-ability can be employed. 



Embedding Radium. — A further procedure in the adaptation of 

 radium to the treatment of tumours was to enclose the substance in 

 small tubes of metal, such as platinum, and, an opening having been 

 made deeply into the centre of the tumour, to lodge the tubes in that 

 position, and allow them to remain embedded there for varying periods. 

 Sometimes this has been combined with outside applications, so that 

 the tumour has been attacked at once by radium rays from within and 

 from without. Dr. Abbe, of New York, has made openings in this 

 manner into malignant tumours, and has placed in position small 

 celluloid tubes, into which the radium can be let down, and which 

 can be easily removed, if desired, without any inconvenience to the 

 patient.. 



Superficial Diseases. — A wide field has been found for the use of 

 i-adium in the treatment of superficial diseases. It is very difficult to 

 suggest a limit to the powers of the substance in this respect. Some 

 diseases, of course, yield more readily than others. Lupus, wliich is 

 tuberculosis of the skin, is very resistant to radium treatment, but a 

 great many other skin diseases, as well as small cancers of the tongue 

 and lip, can be cured, while large, rapidly-growing tumours, like sar- 

 coma, can be destroyed by the method of burying tubes within them. 

 Here, again, the fact is illustrated that these rays seem to concentrate 

 theii- attack upon the young and most rapidly growing cells. That is 

 probably why sarcomas are so vulnerable to attack when compared 

 with carcinomas, which are of slower growth. But in spite of its 

 greater potency and convenience in application, the same thing has 

 to be said of radium as was said of the a;-rays, that it cannot in any 

 sense be looked upon as a cure for cancerous growths of large size. 

 It will inhibit the growth of these tumours and destroy them locally, 

 but rarely completely, and it does nothing to prevent the usual second- 

 ary deposits. 



[Rodent, and malignant wart on face. Dominici's 

 and own cases, illustrating the effect of radium.] 



