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Knifeless Surgery.THE U3E OP RADIUM.In the establishment of the Royal British Radium Instilule, to which a chnrtor has just been granted by Ilia King, London has decided to load the world in the treatment of diseases with radium, and in experimental work. I’oris has its indium institute, hut this new institution In tho West End will bo on a more important scale. Patients will bo treated from tho day Ihe institute open3.Tho wholo subject of the treatment of radium line received u great amount of attention this week because of the remarkable lecture on Radium in Surgery'' delivered by Sir Frederick Treeves, tho eminent surgeon at the London Hospital. It has appeared to me.” said Sir Frederick Treves, an it haa appeared to many others that tbore is possibly a great future in the domnin of surgical therapeutics. I say ‘possibly/ because one must exercise the very greatest • caution when Bpeaking of the potentialities of now remedies. One is tempted to look favorably upon them. They are things of great expectations, and sooner or later must be associated with disappointment. I need not remind yon of all that waa looked for from the X-Rays, which were to rovolutioniso surgery. Well, they have not done so, but they have doue marvellous work—very marvel loue work—bat it is not loo much to say we are in sight of the point when the limitation of their trentmont will be found. The same thing applies to the high frequency current, which was to cure every ill—except poverty. There, again, expectations have not been realised. Tho Game also ie truo, to a certain extent, of tho Finacn Light. In the history of hospital administration I believe there nover was a more daring enterprise than the introduction of the Fin-sen Light into this institution. It is quite impossible lo express in ' ordinary language the good it has done. I will not preach any new doctrine; I merely wish to speak about the present position, and to invite you to' ask yourselves whether you think we are justified in supposing that the utility of radium iB likely to be very great. I do not propose to speak of public cases, but only of patients whom I have actually seen and examined.It may be suid that radium can euro every form of naovus. It can cure the port-wina stain, and I should like to ask any surgeon present whether he has any other re-tucdioi that will do as much. It cun rid the patient of the pig-mcntod mole and the hairy inole. Lot nlo take the case of an infant with tho nnovas the size of a goose-burry on the top of the head. This was entirely cured by a comparatively short application of radium. In another case-a girl was suffering from angioma on her eyelid in size equal lo a plum. It has been subjected to four operations, which proved of little use. By radium it waa removed. Perhaps Die most theatrical case was that of a young woman who had on angioma which covered practically tho whole of tho side of her faco. She had been subjected lo innumerable operations without any success; under radium treatment she was cured. You inny say, 'But these are all affections of ^the skin.’ That is so, I will now loll you of a fibroua angioma which grow lo the aizo of a hen’ egg, ill a boys arm. In this cup the skin was perfectly sound After treatment with radium fo four weeks it was dispersed. Thn a. solid. mass of that mngiijtud should have entirely vanished ii four weeks is marvellous.It is safe fo say,” continued Si. Frederick, 'tyhat there is a rela tion between tho amount of radium U6ed and the amount of good done At the present moment we have oiily small quantities, but wo arc rlt-uling will) a substance that may bo regurded as almost limitless in jn»wer. This cannot be said ol ,X:liay* Finson Light. From ftlife ‘ fact that this relation exists draw the conclusion that, growths ol a rertain type ^aS^heentcdfif only you lutve fryijfalrti'1 radium, you can carry ^ijt^toitUfVer may bo the wishes of: effect of radium on chroniceczema is woll known. Nothing is more curious in tho use of radium than the manner in which it cures, and apparently permanently cure*, itching. How it does so is n matter which is under consideration. I will say nothing of vanishing glands. In cases where radium has been used on the face, glands in the neck have disappeared. It would however, be unsafe to draw any conclusion. As regard rodent ulcers, we may say that those of a certain type may bo cured by radium. (Joe cbhc in which the ulcer was of many years' duration, and in which the tissue bad adhered lo the bone, was unsuccessfully treated by X-Rays and the Finseu Light. A cure was, nevertheless, effected in two sittings with radium, each sitting lasting an hour. I lay stress on this case, because il ie said that radium only acts by moans of ite X-Rays, but hero iB nn instanca of n cure of a complaint which refused to yiold tc X-Rays. We may ask ourselves: Are these results permanent? They apparently a^o, but of course, no very great tinio has elapsed. I think there is enough on which tc baee our belief in the utility ol radium.Sir Frederick Treves endeavored lo demonstrate tho extreme cost ol radium. He held up n tiny tube, a couple of inchoj long, and about un eighth of nn inch in diamotcr, at one cud of which was a microscopic quantity of radium. The tube was worth £S00. If radium, he said ever sinks to such a degree of cheapness that it is worth its weight in gold, it will indeed be exceedingly cheap. Describing the method of application, he said: It is nccoFsary first of all to have a prescription setting forth tho proportions of tho various rays. Tha utmost care has to bo taken in determining how far from the affected part the radium should be held, and for how long the treatment Bhould bs oontiuued. It is a Strange treatment. You may apply it on Monday, and it may appear to have no effect, and on Tuosdny, with the eamo result, on Wednesday, ond on Thursday. On Friday, perhaps, for the first time, it will begin to react. It is most uncanny.At present, continued Sir-Fre-dcrick, attention was being given to the question of whether tuberco-losis disoaeo of tho lunge could be cured by inhaling tbo emanations from radium. Then there was tho question a9 to whether certain cases could be treated by the injection of a radio-active solution, by means ol a hypodermic Byringe. A cancer had beon set up in o mouse and a solution of radinm waB injected with the result that the growth disappeared. Sir Frcdorick concluded by bogging his medical friends to speak carefully about permanent cures.Radium iaoneof the constituents of tbo mineral pitch-blende which exists in Cornwall. At present experiments ond treatment are hampered by the scarcity and dearnesi of tho wonderful substance. Commercial enterprise, however, has now mad* a start in the matter and the British Radium Corporation, Limited, which iB a subsidiary concern to a mining company in Cornwall, is to endeavor to win radium from concentrates of pitch-blendo. Doubtless this is but the beginning of other similar ventures.A Defunct Labor Oligarchy.
Newspaper Details
Bega Budget
Bega, New South Wales, AU
Sat, Mar 13, 1909
Page 4
Full Page
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Los A.
CA, USA 16 Nov 2024
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