RADIUM THERAPY OF GOUT 189 



into more soluble substances, finally into carbonic acid and 

 ammonia. It is said this solvent influence of the radium rays 

 is effective in the living body and that the gouty individual is 

 benefited by this mode of treatment, which it is claimed will 

 destroy existing uric acid deposits in the tissues and reduce 

 the uric acid accumulation in the blood. W. His 41 regards 

 the beneficial influence of radium upon the manifestations of 

 gout as proved, commending its use especially by inhalation 

 of the rays, but also advising that radiumized water be 

 drunk, radium baths be employed and radium salts injected 

 in the immediate neighborhood of the affected parts. His 

 statements have had many confirmations, but have also called 

 forth contradiction in as many instances. Incidentally, at 

 the last Congress of Internists (Wiesbaden, 1912), the op- 

 posing opinions were brought out in sharp contrast. Ac- 

 ceptance of a favorable influence of radium treatment upon 

 the symptoms of the malady aside, the procedure can with 

 difficulty be interpreted either in the sense of increasing the 

 solubility of the monourate of sodium or of decomposing 

 the uric acid. From exhaustive experiments conducted by 

 E. v. Knaffl-Lenz and W. Wiechowski in the Vienna Pharma- 

 cological Institute, 42 no effect at all from even large amounts 

 of the rays were recognized, either in destruction or in 

 increasing the solubility of monosodium urate. As uric acid 

 is readily oxidized by ozone, it might perhaps be supposed 

 that some such process is involved ; but it has been demon- 

 strated that the quantity of ozone produced in the air by 

 the radium preparations is incapable of producing any ap- 

 preciable decomposition of uric acid. It is not clearly stated 

 under what precise conditions Grudzent's contrary results 

 were obtained. The above-named experimenters state that 

 when an impure alkaline preparation of radium was em- 



41 W. His, Internisten Kongress, 1910 u. 1912; Berliner klin. Wochenschr., 

 1911, 197. 



"E. v. Knaffl-Lenz and W. Wiechowski (H. H. Meyer's Lab., Vienna), 

 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 77, 303, 1912. 



