Polonium as Medicine.
Sir William Ramsay, of England, discussing the properties of radium at a meeting of the British Radium Corporation recently, said there were other substances in the radium ores which had not so far been exploited from a therapeutic point of view. He hoped that polonium, which was perhaps the most easily produced, might prove to possess therapeutic qualities for the treatment of diseases which had hitherto not been treated.
Polonium, said Sir William, was somewhat analogous to selenium and tellurium, and also to bismuth, the therapeutic qualities of which had been tested. Those three elements remained in the system for some length of time, and then were excreted, but had practically no therapeutical qualities. Polonium differed from them entirely in that it gave off alpha rays, just the same as radium did, and he could not help believing that the potency of radium for therapeutic purposes depended upon the alpha rays.
Radium could not be administered as medicine to human beings, as it was too expensive, and probably too dangerous, but the three substances he had mentioned were eliminated in about three months, and his impression was that polonium might produce its effects for about that time and then be eliminated.