A RIVAL TO RADIUM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2496, 8 May 1909, Page 3

A RIVAL TO RADIUM.

lIOAV TO PROLONG LIFE

~ The American newspapers are devoting a great amount of space to an alleged discovery of Dr. Skillman Bailey, of the Hahnemann Medical College,Chicago. In an address to the medical Congress assembled at Now Orleans recently. Dr. Bailey stated that lie had discovered a substancel which was described as like radium but less harmful' and expensive, and called radio-thor, or thor-rad-x. The substance is so powerful as a therapeutic agent as to suggest a revolution in the practice of surgery. This material was obtained from pitchblende found in Colorado. It is possessed, said Dr. Bailey, of all the curative properties of radium, and none of its baneful after-effects. It is also within the reach bf persons of moderate means,-and the supply is apparently limitless. ' Dr. Bailey has secured tlie most successful results 1 with tlior-rad-x in the great relief and he believed the permanent cure of locomotor ataxy, with it he can photograph objects through six inches of wood. He showed a glass tube containing some of the material, and said that when placed in contact with the< negative pole of a magnet it became luminous.

NERVE SHAKING EXPERIMENTS. Dr.- Bailey exhibited several photographs showing tlie results of his most recent experiments, and distributed amongst the practitioners present some radio-thor, which had the appearance of a partially fused.metal, and gave out a phosphorescent glow. Dr. Bailey also exhibited a small pliial, in which a liquid extracted from the mineral had been placed.' He said that this liquid would color common glass like Bohemian glass, and was of* immense value financially. Mr. Taffny. of New York, he declared, spent £20,000 a year to obtain uranium for coloring glass and art wares. He exhibited grains of powder 'in a bottle, and said he could attach it to a battery, and the tube would glow with a bright light. Further, Dr. Bailey stated that his experiments made him quite nervous, and he gave visible signs of being unstrung. A physician present said it was the duty of the faculty to- try to evolve something for tlie prevention of this nervousness if they used tlior-rad-x in their practice. The consensus of opinion at the convention was that Dr. Bailey had made out a strong] case in support of his claim that he had discovered a positive remedy for locomotor ataxy, cancer, and other maladies that have long baffled the medical profession. Dr. Blackman*, of Chicago, who has been associated with Dr. Bailey in laboratory experiments, declared that the discovery was of such great importance to humanity and the medical world that lie hesitated to express himself adequately lest he should ceem to be going beyond the mark. “Tlie discovery,” he said, “is not to be made the means of fortune-seeking. There is no doubt that thor-rad-x possesses every quality and all the curative virtues of radium. It will be sold to surgeons, physicians, and even laymen, through a central agency in Chicago, and the cost will lie merely sufficient to defray the expense involved in its manufacture . ELIXIR OF LIFE. “It is idle to attempt an enumeration of the ailments that radio-active applications will cure,” said Dr. Blackman*. “In fact, what wo really wonder is whether anything exists that it will not cure once we have thoroughly > mastered the handling of it.'- I should not like to suggest that we have at last found the means .for the infinite prolongation of hurpan life by arresting the processes of decay, any yet it is a fact that the experiments we have made indicate extraordinary power in the new agent to prolong life. Several months ago I took two boxes of chrysalides. One of the boxes I subjected to thor-rad-x exposure, and the other was not exposed. I did this to demonstrate my theory, now a recognised fact, that emanations of thor-rad-x were preventative of tissue degeneration. The result was astonishing. Those moths in the unexposed box developed as usual, lived their natural term of life, and died. Those exposed lived three times as long as the others. “In perhaps a more remarkable 111stance I treated a Chicago man who is very prominently known for tubercular pleurisy. Tlie disease was) in an advanced stage. I injected thor-rad-x in solution. After three injections the man was cured. He has married well, and there has been no return of the ■tubercular condition. We found that the-waters of the most principal foreign springs to which l people flock tot treatment are radio-active, which ex-

plains their curative quality. Marionbad is an instance. If we succeed in discovering how to maintain the radioactive principle in solution, so that the solution does not lose its value with time, wo shall have come verrt close to the knowledge of how to fight off death indefinitely. The use of injections to arrest senility,, to: regenerate and re-juvenate the aged, to re-estab-lish the balance in disordered functions, will'Certainly come as we familiarise ourselves with the use of the hew pi oduct.l \ . -