The Sub-Committee appointed by the Committee of Civil Research to
inquire into radium stocks and require- ments, have reported that twenty grammes of radium besides the present stocks ought to be acquired before the end of 1980. For this purpose £200,000 will be neces- sary, and the Government have already acted on the suggestion that in an appeal to the public, they should contribute pound for pound. The increase of the supply of radium has become a very urgent matter, for after early disappointments in its use it was proved that certain kinds of cancer can almost unfailingly be cured if the radium needles are' applied with the help of the " surgery of access." The Sub-Committee point out that at present there is a lack of trained staffs and of hospital accom- modation. Some hospitals have a good supply of radium, but other parts of the country are sorely in need of it. The obvious solution is centralization. The Sub- Committee advise that two bodies should be created, entitled the National Radium Tiustees and the Radium Commission, for organizing and distributing the supply. The Trustees would have a majority of doctors, but the Commission, if constituted as proposed, would not. The medical profession is raising some objections, but no doubt these will, before long, be either met or with- drawn.
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