The Wonders of Radium

The Wonders of Radium is by Maynard Shipley. A chapter on the efficiency of radium in treatment of various diseases says that in 1923 Dr. R. E. Loucks, president of the American Radium Society, announced that toxic goiter had been cured by radium. The chapter says exophthalmic goiter has been, in most cases, successfully treated by irradiation, and that just how the cure is effected is still unknown.

Dr. Marshall had been working with radium for months before admitting the success of his investigations, and says that microscopic examinations of abscessed tissue treated with radioactive solutions indicate that the bacteria producing the affection were killed. Dr. Marshall also says the discovery is purely of academic interest because radium is too expensive, and it is possible to obtain it only in limited quantities. In the destruction of disease germs the radium emanation has been found more useful than the direct rays, and the emanations kill or check the growth of anthrax, typhoid, and diphtheric germs.