BANISHING THE PLAGUES 



intractible case of his own. He at first used the 

 thorium in connection with electric treatment of 

 bones and the solar plexus. But it appeared that 

 the electricity in some way neutralized the thorium 

 emanation, as the result of the combination was not 

 satisfactory. When the electricity was discontinued, 

 and the thorium given by itself, the patient at once 

 began to gain in a very decided manner. In the 

 course of five weeks not only had his blood count 

 risen from 1,200,000 red corpuscles to 5,280,000, but 

 the general condition of the patient had been trans- 

 formed from a state of alarming invalidism to one of 

 relative health. 



Dr. Park is wisely conservative as to the ultimate 

 outcome, knowing that years must elapse before we 

 can say in such a case that a cure is permanent. But 

 experience seems to justify the conclusion that 

 thorium X is a remedy far more potent than any 

 hitherto known in the treatment of the alarming and 

 by no means rare condition of pernicious anaemia. 

 Unfortunately the drug, like the other radioactive 

 substances, is very rare and costly. It must be given 

 by a skilled physician, and may best be administered 

 hypodermically, preferably injected into a vein. 



As bearing on the method of operation of the 

 radioacative elements, the observation of two English 

 experimenters, Drs. Helen Chambers and S. Russ, 

 on the results of subjecting blood to the influence of 

 radium are of interest. So far as their observations 

 went the so-called beta and gamma rays of radium 

 (which are really streams of electric corpuscles and 

 X-rays respectively) had no influence on the blood. 



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