Within the time that the new antiseptic has been in use at these colleges, 85% of all the cases treated have been successful; and, with one exception, no soreness or pain has followed its use. This radioactive preparation is a solution of radium salts, “Radium D plus E,” which results from the decomposition of radium emanation, which, readily soluble in water, possesses definite radioactive properties. In making the solution the tiny capillary tubes containing the decomposed radium are crushed under water in a mortar and the liquid is then ready for use in the treatment of an ulcerated root of a tooth.
Dr. Marshall had been working with radium for months before admitting the success of his investigations, which were conducted in a long series of experiments on the lower animals. “Microscopic examinations of abscessed tissue,” he said, “which have been treated with radioactive solutions, indicate that the bacteria producing the affection were killed. And in no cases observed has the treatment produced radium burns; the amounts used have been too small and the effects of too transitory a nature. That sterilization of tissue can be produced, however, seems apparent.
“The discovery is purely of academic interest because of the fact that radium is too expensive, and it is possible to obtain it only in limited quantities; so that the chief value of the discovery will rest in the fact that it will stimulate further work for the identification of more accessible material.”
In external treatment by radium itself, emanations from a certain quantity of radium are allowed to focus on parts of the body over the diseased organs. Thus the curative functions of the diseased portion are stimulated to activity. The atrophying of diseased tonsils has been the most successful use of this form of treatment.
In the destruction of disease germs the radium emanation has been found more useful than the direct rays. The emanations kill or check the growth of anthrax, typhoid, and diphtheric germs. The direct rays are efficient in the relief of severe cases of enurites and facial neuralgia, cancer, tumors, affections of the skin and abnormal growths. Dr. Guyenot has proved that radium effects a complete cure for rheumatism, which he accounts for in these words: “Uric acid circulates in the blood in the form of urate of soda, of which there are two isomeric forms differing from each other by their respective solubility in the blood plasms. The soluble salt is converted into an insoluble form.” Radium breaks up this compound. The “rheumatism” disappears.
CHAPTER VII
WHERE WE GET RADIUM
The extraction process consists in eliminating the various substances in the ore until only the radium salts are left. But, in the case of carnotite, more than 900 different operations, requiring six months of labor, are required between the digging of the ore and the production of a gram of pure radium salt. A solution containing barium and radium salts in the ratio of ten parts of radium to a billion is treated with sulphate to precipitate an insoluble “raw sulphate of barium.”
Radium ores are generally found in connection with granitic masses—i.e., in places where granite forms at least part of the rock of the country. The carnotite ore usually consists of a thin layer of sandstone which crops out on the side of a canyon wall and is recognized by the characteristic sulphur-yellow color. The narrow seams are usually in the form of pockets, so that the value of a claim is dubious until it has been thoroughly explored and worked.
Most of the original radium minerals, such as uraninite, samarskite, and brannerite, are black and have a shiny fracture and a high specific gravity. These minerals are, however, rarely found in commercially valuable quantities.
Pitchblende, the richest source of radium, has the same composition as uraninite and the same general appearance, except that it shows no crystal form. It occurs in veins. There are extensive deposits of pitchblende or uraninite at Joachimstahl, Bohemia (Czecho-Slovakia), containing from 30 to 70 per cent uranium oxide, from which the radium is extracted. But here the uranium ore occurs in small pockets in widely separated localities, so that it is merely a by-product of other mining operations. However, after separation of the uranium from the ore, the residues are three to five times as radioactive, weight for weight, as the uranium. The amount of radium in old unaltered mineral is always proportional to its content of uranium in the ratio of 3.3 parts of radium by weight to ten million parts of uranium.