NA TURE 



339 



THURSDAY. MAY ii, ign- 



THE RADIUM TREATMENT OF DISEASE. 

 Radium: its Physics and Therapeutics. By Dr. D. 

 Turner. Pp. x + 86. (London: Bailli^re, Tindall, 

 and Cox, 191 1.) Price 55. net. 



THIS is a small manual suitable for medical men, 

 giving in a concise form an account of the 

 physical phenomena of radio-activity and the thera- 

 peutic uses of radium. For the physical part of the 

 book the writings of Profs. Rutherford and Soddy 

 have been largely used, and for the therapeutic 

 chapters reference has been made to the works 

 of Drs. Wickham, Degrais, and Dominici. In 

 addition, the author records his own observa- 

 tions founded upon a five years' experience of 

 the use of radium as a therapeutic agent. The 

 book is illustrated by a number of plates, including 

 portraits of Prof, and Mme. Curie as frontispiece, 

 and portraits showing various diseases before and 

 after treatment by radium. These include rodent 

 ulcer, na2vus, port-wine stain, warts, papilloma, and 

 >pring catarrh of the eye. 



The opening chapters deal with the physics of 

 radium. They give a concise account of the con- 

 clusions to which physicists have come — without dis- 

 cussion. The characteristic efTects of radio-activity 

 are enumerated, including the power of affecting 

 photographic plates, of producing fluorescence, of 

 ionising the air, of producing heat and various 

 chemical changes. The alpha, beta, and gamma 

 rays are described, the beta and gamma rays being 

 lompared with the kathode and X-rays. In dealing 

 \\ ith the nature of the gamma rays, the author writes 

 as follows : — • 



■'The nature of the gamma ray is disputed; at first 

 (■(insidered, owing to their magnetic non-deflectibility, 

 to be a pulse or wave motion in the ether, there are 

 now philosophers who regard them as discrete par- 

 ticles, but electrically neutral (positive and negative 

 united). The question, then, is not settled. At any 

 rate, the gamma rays are always found in company 

 with the beta, much as the kathode ray and X-ray 

 ■J,o together. If the gamma ray is proved to be a 

 l)article instead of a wave motion, we may have to 

 revise our views as to the nature of the X-ray." 



The author might have gone further and said that 

 we shall have to revise our views as to the nature of 

 I lie X-ray, for the arguments in favour of regarding 

 i^amma rays as material particles refer even more 

 forcibly to the X-rays. The methods of containing 

 radium for therapeutic application are of great im- 

 |)ortance, the pure salt being so valuable (i mg, at 

 present costing 18Z.) that the greatest care must be 

 taken to prevent loss. An impure salt is usually em- 

 ployed, being mixed with barium salts, from which 

 it is very difficult to separate. The bromide and 

 chloride are hygroscopic and soluble, and must be 

 kept in an air-tight receptacle. The radium is con- 

 tained, for therapeutic purposes, either in (a) sealed 

 glass tubes, (h) ebonite capsules, or (c) mixed with 

 varnish and spread out on pieces of cloth or metal. 



The alpha particles are so readily absorbed that 

 they aro not available for treatment by any of these 

 .\M. 2 167, VOL. 86] 



methods, even the layer of varnish in the method (c) 

 being sufficient to stop the alpha particles. For the 

 treatment of superficial condilions the more readily 

 absorbed soft beta rays are used, a comparatively short 

 exposure being given. For a subcutaneous condition, 

 where the skin is to be spared, a screen of aluminium 

 of i mm. thickness, or a silver screen of one-fifth 

 of a millimetre is interposed, and a longer exposure 

 given. For deeply-seated diseases a lead screen, vary- 

 ing in thickness from one-fifth to one millimetre, is 

 interposed, and a prolonged exposure is given. In 

 this case only the hard beta and the gamma rays will 

 get through. When these metallic screens are used, 

 account must be taken of the fact that the metals 

 give out secondary rays, and that these might con- 

 ceivably injure the skin. For this reason it is re- 

 commended that when a metal screen be used, a 

 thin envelope of some non-metallic substance be placed 

 next to the skin to cut off the secondary rays. 



Radium emanation has been used therapeutically 

 in various ways by inhalation, injection, in baths, and 

 medicinally. Some natural waters are radio-active 

 (Wiesbaden, Bath, &c.), and their efficacy may be in 

 part due to this. Possibly the greater efficacy of 

 mineral waters taken at their source, as compared 

 with the same waters bottled and taken at home, 

 may be explained by the decay of their radio-activity. 

 The author refers to the present writer's method of 

 using radium emanation enclosed in glass tubes ; he 

 points out that this use of the emanation is not, pro- 

 perly speaking, a use of the emanation itself, but 

 only of its rays and of those of the active deposit, for 

 none of the emanation can escape. It is not in any 

 sense comparable to the use of the emanation by in- 

 jection or other introduction directly into contact 

 with the tissues. In the latter case the emanation 

 tends to diffuse itself throughout the tissues. Wick- 

 ham and Degrais have made extensive use of water 

 rendered radio-active or actually containing dissolved 

 radium bromide, and of emulsions of insoluble salts 

 of radium in paraffin and vaseline for injection into 

 tumours or beneath them, with the object of prevent- 

 ing their spreading deeply. Various properties of the 

 emanation when used in any of these manners have 

 been described. Thus it is said to increase the activity 

 of digestive and other ferments of the bpdy, to possess 

 specific powers of dissolving urates; ferments which 

 form and destroy uric acid being rendered more 

 active by its use. 



The efficacy of radium treatment is said to depend 

 primarily on a selective destructive power, and it has 

 been universally recognised that the rays possessing 

 this selective action are the gamma rays and the hard 

 beta rays, while the alpha particles are said to be 

 universally destructive, destroying both the healthy 

 and the diseased tissues. In the case of radium 

 emanation or radio-active solutions, the whole of the 

 radiation is available, and since the energy of the 

 alpha particles is more than one hundred times as 

 great as that of the beta and gamma together, it is 

 clear that we are dealing here almost entirely with 

 alpha radiation, for the effect of the beta and gamma 

 radiation is relatively so small as to be negligible. 

 No account is taken of this in the present book, but it 



M 



