January 9, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



61 



terior would be authorized '' to conduct ex- 

 plorations and researches with a view to de- 

 termining the practicability of developing 

 from such ores a supply of radium and to pro- 

 vide for the mining and treatment of radium- 

 bearing ores in such manner as would best 

 secure a supply of radium for the use of the 

 government of the United States and the hos- 

 pitals of this country." - 



Secretary Lane points out that there are 

 only two grams of radium at present in the 

 United States. It is valued at $120,000 a 

 gram. All has been procured from Europe. 

 " Three fourths of the radium produced in the 

 world during the year 1912," says Secretary 

 Lane, " came from American ores, yet we have, 

 up to this time, taken no steps whatever to 

 preserve for our own people this invaluable 

 metal, and our physicians and hospitals are 

 dependent upon European laboratories for 

 such supply as they can procure, and are sub- 

 ject to whatever monopoly charge the Euro- 

 pean laboratories demand for their product." 



In view of the use of radium in the treat- 

 ment of cancer and the difficulty now experi- 

 enced in obtaining a supply of it. Secretary 

 Lane says, that as one person in every ten in 

 this country more than fifty years of age suf- 

 fers from cancer, " it is difficult to overesti- 

 mate the necessity of securing immediately as 

 large a supply as possible of this mysterious 

 renledy." Continuing, the secretary says: 

 " Radium is found in ores carrying uranium 

 and vanadium, which are used extensively in 

 the arts, and processes by which it is extracted 

 are secret. A process has been invented by 

 the chemists in our Bureau of Mines which 

 promises, from the laboratory experiments 

 thus far made, to be successful. Under the 

 endowment of two Americans, a building is 

 now being erected in Denver (which, with its 

 equipment, will be opened for work in the 

 coming February), in which an effort will be 

 made to prove the commercial possibility of 

 this American process. If successful, this 

 process will be given to the world, and all of 

 the radium secured over and above a small 

 minimum will be the property of the United 

 States, and will be put into the hands of the 



United States Public Health Service for public 

 use. Under all these circumstances it seems 

 to me that the only prudent course that the 

 United States can follow is to withdraw such 

 of its lands as are supposed to contain radium 

 from public entry. This will guard against 

 these lands being taken up by those who would 

 not put them to their highest and most bene- 

 ficial use. It would be inhuman to deprive 

 other nations of access to our radium deposits 

 if they alone were masters of the secret by 

 which this mineral could be secured, and it is 

 believed that there is a sufficient amount of 

 carnotite and pitchblend already in private 

 ownership in this country to permit of con- 

 tinued European experimentation and pro- 

 duction. The people of the United States, 

 however, should be entitled to protection 

 against the exhaustion of this resource and 

 its exclusive control by the scientists of other 

 lands." 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 



It is proposed to place a suitable memorial 

 of the late Alfred Russel Wallace in West- 

 minster Abbey. It is also proposed to pre- 

 sent a statue or bust to the British Museum 

 of Natural History and a portrait to the Royal 

 Society. Contributions to the Alfred Russel 

 Wallace Memorial Fund may be sent to the 

 Union of London and Smith Bank, Holbom 

 Circus, London, E. C. 



Lord Rayleigh will unveil a tablet to the 

 memory of Lord Lister at King's College, 

 London, on January 14. The ceremony 

 will be followed by the inaugural lecture of 

 the newly appointed professor of physics, Pro- 

 fessor O. W. Richardson, F.R.S., recently of 

 Princeton University, who will take as his 

 subject " The Discharge of Electricity from 

 Hot Bodies." Lord Rayleigh will also preside 

 at this lecture. 



Sir Archibald Geikie, the distinguished 

 British geologist, has been appointed a mem- 

 ber of the Order of Merit, filling the vacancy 

 caused by the death of Alfred Russel Wallace. 



Other New Tear's honors in Great Britain 

 include a viscountcy conferred on Mr. James 



