January 20, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



105 



none the less be made to draw into the acad- 

 emy the younger men in active work, who 

 must carry forward the activities of a scien- 

 tific nature in the future, thus subserving the 

 second purpose of the society. 



One other subject of general interest must 

 be mentioned. The council has decided that 

 the routine work connected with the several 

 offices of the academy shall be performed by a 

 clerical assistant, with an office at the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History, who shall 

 be under the general supervision of the re- 

 cording secretary. This arrangement pro- 

 vides for a still further centralization of the 

 activities of the academy in the museym, 

 where the library is already housed, and where 

 the scientific meetings are now being held. 



Henry E. Crampton, 

 Recording Secretary. 



THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 

 MEDICINE. 



The ninth regular meeting of the Society 

 for Experimental Biology and Medicine was 

 held in Professor C. A. Herter's laboratory, at 

 819 Madison Avenue, New York, on Wednes- 

 day evening, December 21, 1904. Dr. S. J. 

 Meltzer presided. 



Memberti present. — Atkinson, Auer, Burton- 

 Opitz, Dunham, Ewing, Flexner, Gies, Herter, 

 Jackson, Lee, Levene, Levin, Lusk, Mandel, 

 Meltzer, Murlin, Park, Richards, Ralant, 

 Wadsworth, Wallace, Wolf. 



Members elected. — John Auer, F. G. Bene- 

 dict, Ludwig Hektoen, G. C. Huber, H. S. 

 Jennings, Jacqties Loeb, Leo Loeb, A. B. Mac- 

 Callum, J. H. Pratt, Torald SoUmann, J. C. 

 Torrey. 



Scientific Program.* 



Radium, and some methods for its thera- 

 peutic application, with demonstrations: 

 Hugo Lieber. [By invitation.] 

 Mr. Lieber gave an interesting account of 



the discovery of radium by Mme. and Pro- 



* The abstracts presented in this account of the 

 proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 

 stracts given to the secretary by the authors 

 themselves. The latter abstracts of the reports 

 may be found in current issues of American 

 Medicine and Medical News. 



fessor Curie, and demonstrated many radio- 

 active phenomena. Special attention was 

 drawn to recently discovered facts bearing on 

 radium emanation, which show that radium 

 discharges primarily emanations and alpha 

 rays only, but that the emanations soon dis- 

 integrate, with the resultant production of 

 heta and gamma rays. Because of their nearly 

 negative penetrative power, the alpha rays as 

 well as the emanations are practically unavail- 

 able for therapeutic purposes when the radium 

 is used in glass tubes or in similar containers. 



Various observers have noted beneficial 

 therapeutic effects of radium, especially on 

 diseased tissues, as in cancer. Germicidal re- 

 sults have also been obtained. On the other 

 hand numerous therapeutic failures have been 

 recorded. The author believes that in all 

 probability many of these disappointments 

 have ensued solely because the practitioner 

 has not had available, in such cases, just those 

 radiations of radium which are required for 

 therapeutic effects. 



This opinion of past therapeutic failures 

 led the author to conduct some experiments 

 designed to discover a method of applying 

 radium more advantageously. Such a method 

 seemed to require (a) a disposition of the 

 radium in very thin layers, so as to yield the 

 maximum proportions of alpha rays and 

 emanations, and {h) its application in a con- 

 tainer permeable by the rays and the emana- 

 tions. These experiments finally led to the 

 production of what the author terms ' radium 

 coatings.' 



The preparation of the coatings may be 

 illustrated by their application to celluloid 

 rods. I'he radium salt is dissolved in a 

 solvent such as alcohol. The rod is then 

 dipped into this solution. On its withdrawal, 

 the radium solution adherent to the rod 

 quickly evaporates, when the radium is de- 

 posited in a very thin layer. The celluloid is 

 somewhat softened temporarily by the alcohol, 

 a fact favoring superficial incoriioration of 

 the radium. Accidental removal of the 

 radium may be effectually prevented by dip- 

 ping the radium-coated rod into a proper col- 

 lodion solution, quickly withdrawing it, and 



