RADIUM VOL 5

Excerpt from Radium, Vol. 5: August, 1915To the lay mind a very serious complication is the burn which sometimes follows the application. This may be extensive and deep and at times very painful and difficult of cure.Some of my patients have noticed the more rapid disappearance of portions of the growth under the burned area than under that portion unaffected in this manner. These patients sometimes ask to have the radium left on long enough to produce an eschar, believing this to hasten the cure.The closer the radium to the Object the greater the effect of the rays. As the rays shoot out in every direction from the center the ideal course of treatment would be to have the radium as nearly as possible in the middle of the tumor. Therefore a malignant growth in one of the normal tubes of the body and within reach of radium application - as for instance, in the oesophagus, or the rectum - is theoretically much more susceptible to treatment, especially if the malignant growth surrounds the canal than where the neoplasm can be radiated from one surface only. If there is a sinus running to or through the tumor, or if it is in a location where it can be pierced to accomodate the insertion of the radium, satisfactory treatment can also be carried on. When neither of these methods is possible, we have to resort to what is called cross raying or cross-firing. In this means of treatment we divide the radium into capsules and place it on the opposite sides of the growth, protecting the skin from the burning rays as much as possible by means of screens of different thickness. All these details are matters of technique and depend upon the individual patient and the disease as well as upon the experience of the operator and upon his personal equation.So little is yet known of the action of radium on living tissues and so much is still to be learned that, working as hard as one can and despite the vast amount of material, even with an ample quantity of radium. It may still be years before a proper and successful method of treatment applicable to each individual tumor can be satisfactorily and efficiently worked out.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.