Page Four 



Madaiiic Curie. Wheicas BccqiRMol (liscovcrcd the invisihlc 

 lays emanating- from iiraniiiin coinpouiul.s, it rcniained for 

 Professor and Madame Curie to isolate the source of these 

 rays in the new element, radium. It was due to her labors in 

 the tedious and difficult fractional crystallizations that a 

 minute amount of radium salt was obtained; and when in 

 1910, workinjj; with Debierne, she succeeded in isolating from 

 radium chloride the silvery white metal which we know as 

 radium, she established radio-activity upon a firm basis. 



It seems to us singularly pathetic that a scientist who has 

 devoted the best j-ears of her life to the giving to the world 

 of a new form of energy, a new force in surgery- and a sub- 

 stance of great potential power and usefulness, should not 

 actually own any of this element of infinite possibilities. 

 Madame Cuiie has heretofore ])een obliged to borrow from 

 the Government of France, from the hospitals, and wherever 

 else she could oV)tain it, the material for her experiments. 

 She has but one wish, one unsatisfied desire: to own a supph' 

 of radium salts which she can control and use as she sees 

 fit . It is this wish that is soon to be gratified when the women 

 of America present to her one gram of radium. And so pre- 

 cious is this gift, so rare is this creation of Madame Curie's 

 arduous scientific endeavor that every woman in the land 

 may contribute to the purchase of the single gram which is 

 henceforth to be her property. 



Up to 1915, only 4,131 milligrams of radium had been 

 obtained in the form of high grade salts. These were mostly 

 recovered from pitchl)lende, the uranium mineral which 

 furnished the material fiom which th(^ element was first 

 obtained. But pitch])l(Mi(le is by no means the only radio- 

 active substance occurring in nature. In fact, all minerals 

 which contain uranium are more or less radio-active, and in 



