Dr. Howard A. Kelly, of Johns Hopkins University, has been very
successful in curing swollen masses of glands on the sides of the neck,
cancer of the thyroid and of the cervix, and sarcoma of the chest.
Dr. E. S. Molyneaux of London, has cured obdurate cases of tubercular
glands in the neck, a disease rather frequent among children. Thanks
to the patient researches of Dr. John A. Marshall, associate professor
of biochemistry and dental pathology at the University of California,
it is now known that a radioactive liquid may be used for sterilizing
infected tissue. Experiments employing the radioactive liquid in the
treatment of root canals have been conducted at the George Williams
Hooper Foundation for Medical Research and at the College of Dentistry
of the University of California.
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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