Curing Rheumatism with Radium 



The latest means which European physicians are employ- 

 ing in the treatment of the soldiers in the trenches 



By the Paris Correspondent of the Popular Science Monthly 



RADIUM stores so much energy' in 

 its atoms that a thirtieth of an ounce 

 ■ has wrapped up in it about as much 

 heat as a whole ton of good coal. That is 

 one reason why radium is so puzzling. It 

 is one of the heaviest solids we know — being 

 many times heavier than iron. Yet it is 

 continuously breaking up into an emanation 

 which forms one of the lightest of gases. 

 This emanation is even lighter than air. 

 During the transformation, myriads of 

 electrically charged particles are thrown off. 

 The particles that make up the emana- 

 tion are hurled from the radium at enor- 

 mous speeds. Imagine, if you can, a stream 

 of these particles as they are hurtling 

 through space at a speed approaching 

 eleven million miles an hour! Then try 

 to picture what would happen should any- 

 thing get in their way. If it were 

 not for the fact that the particles 

 are infinitesimally small, no sub- 

 stance could withstand their bom- 

 bardment for an instant. A 

 it is, their impingement upon 

 certain dense solids 

 causes brilliant displays 



The physician is 

 shown placing the 

 radium tube in the 

 booth from which 

 it shoots its emana- 

 tions into the air 



Below: The electric 

 static machine by 

 means of which the 

 patient is charged 



of light. Their impingement upon human 

 tissues has a fundamental effect upon the 

 life processes. Like X-rays, which the 

 emanation contains in part, the rays of 

 radium emanation have a curative effect 

 upon certain skin affections. Their direct 

 application in treating cancer, on the other 

 hand, has been found under certain condi- 

 tions to stimulate the action of the growth 

 rather than the counter-action. But the 

 use of the emanations, after they have once 

 been emitted and consequently have lost 

 some of their force, has been eminently 

 successful in the milder forms of human 

 ailments. Painful conditions brought about 

 by rheumatism and gout, for instance, have 

 been actually cured by applying the 

 emanation internally. The gentler action 

 throughout the system seems to stimulate 

 the organs. 



In Europe, radium emanations are em- 

 ployed in treating soldiers who suffer from 

 severe muscular rheu- 

 matism because of the 

 dank conditions in the 

 trenches. The accom- 

 panying illustrations 

 show the type of ap- 

 paratus that is used 

 in the treatment of 

 these cases. The pa- 

 tient is placed on an 

 insulated chair inside 

 an air-tight booth, 

 and is charged to a 

 high potential by a 

 small static electric 

 machine. He is then 

 supplied with a steady flow of 

 air, which has passed over a 

 quantity- of radium. The elec- 

 trically charged emanation 

 emitted from the radium dif- 

 fuses through the air, and cer- 

 tain of its rays are encountered 

 by the patient, who draws 

 them in with his breath. After 

 reaching his lungs, they are 

 almost entirjely absorbed by his 

 system, when they begin to 

 effect their cure. During the 

 treatment, the physician keeps 



415 



