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    "localId": "75722891",
    "label": "Letters Received to H.H. Barker, June 9, 1928",
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    "id": "75722891",
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    "title": "Letters Received to H.H. Barker, June 9, 1928",
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        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 3,
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    "ocrText": "UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI\nCOLUMBIA\nRECEIVED\nDEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY\nJUN 12 1928\nJune 9, 1928\nMr. H. H. Barker\nU. S. Radium Corporation\n535 Pearl St.\nNew York, N. Y.\nMy dear Barker:\nI have before me your letter of June 5, advising how the\ncases of the five complainants have been settled out of Court, and I also\nhave your letter of June 6, calling attention to the experimental work\nwhich Dr. Flinn and I made during my recent visit to New York City. I\nshall make a few comments on both letters before giving you a few results\nthat we have obtained on detecting radio activity in expired air by means\nof the scintillation method.\nIn regard to the terms of settlement of the cases I am\nquite in accord with the views which you have expressed. It does seem to\nme that the foundation upon which the suit is based has never been estab-\nlished. The actual facts have never been clearly determined, therefore,\nit seems to me that the award of any damages at this time, by the terms of\nsettlement is unjust. First of all, it seems to me, the facts in the case\nshould have been established by an arbritration board. Perhaps I had\nbetter not digress too much along this line, for it will make my letter\ntoo lengthy. There is only one paragraph in your letter of June 5, on\npage two, which it seems to me has only secondary bearing on these cases.\nIt is the paragraph in which you refer to the use of radium intraveniously.\nThe use of radium chloride intraventously does not prove that radioactive\ndeposits in the bone marrow in small quantities may not be a real hazard, and\nbe the direct cause of anemia.\nI am glad to hear that you have had such a satisfactory visit\nwith Dr. Simpson of Chicago. While my contact with medical men who actually\nuse radium in the treatment of diseases, has been more limited than your\nexperience, still I have conversed with at least four or five physicians who\nhave had years of experience in radium therapy. As the result of these con-\ntacts I have yet to find a medical man who understands the science of radio-\nactivity. I have yet to find a man that clearly understands the successive\nradioactive changes and the bearing of the fundamentals upon the question of\nradium poisoning. I hope then that you will not be disappointed in Dr.\nSimpsons reaction and the position he may take in the future. It is very\ndifficult for these medical men to get the proper Aspective on a question\nof this kind, involving as it does, a thorough knowledge of radioactive\nchanges.\nWe have, here in Columbia, Dr. Dudley Robnett who was associated\nwith Dr. Kelly of Baltimore for a number of years. I have had two conversations\nUNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI\nCOLUMBIA\nDEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY\nwith Dr. Robnett, in which the cases of the girls who claimed to be suffering\nwith radium poisoning were discussed. Dr. Robnett has had a wide experinece\nin radium therapy, but I serously doubt whether he has mastered the scientific\naspect of radioactive changes. Among other matters he dited the death of two\nphysicists who had charge of the separation and tubing of the radium emanation\nin their hospital. These men occasionally had accidents and thus unhaled\nquantities of radium emanation. Two of these men, he stated, Scumm to\nanemia, and if I understood him correctly he ascribed this disease to the\nactive deposit resulting from the emanation. These men never had occasion to\ningest solid radium salts. He also ascribed some of the effects to the active\ndeposits on the walls of the room and on the objects in the room, claiming that\nthe men were exposed to these radiations continuously and I gained the impres-\nsion that he considered the radium poisoning of the girls in similar light.\nThat is, it was the active deposit which caused the necrosis. I doubt whether\nDr. Robnett takes into consideration the fact that the active deposit decays\nvery, very rapidly indeed, and that the product of slow decay Radium D,\nis\niso-topic with lead. and will thus be readily eliminated from the system, leaving\nno chance for the polonium to be produced in the system. I simply cite this\ncase as a typical example to illustrate the point I made in the previous para-\ngraph---that medical men, even experts in the use of radium, are not adequately\nposted in the science of radioactivity. I think this is an element in the\nsituation which must not be overlooked. It is difficult to contend with.\nComing now to your report entitled \"The Experimental Determination\nof the Radium Present in Living Persons\". There is one point in the paper\nwhich must be established on a much firmer basis before we can think of publi-\ncation. In making the determination of the emanation present in the expired\nair from Mrs. Dumshoff we obtained a value which I considered to be quite un-\ncertain. A good deal depends upon the accuracy of the determination. If I\ninterpret correctly a set of readings which you made and which Dr. Flinn sent\nme on expired air from Mrs. Dumshoff, it seems to me that the value we obtained\nis incorrect and therefore that the value of the emanating power of redium de-\nposited in the bone marrow is quite too high. These experiments should be re-\npeated.\nComing now to the detection of emanation in expired air by the\nscintillation method; our boys on the crystallizing work tried thisemethod\nduring the winter. Our experiments were entirely qualitatively. They simply\nset up a Zinc sulfide screen and focused on it a microscope magnifying it\nforty times. I happened to have one of the Watson type called Holos, which\nare used in Rutherfords laboratory, as well as in the Vienna Laboratory for\ncounting scintillations. The boys simply let their breath impigne on the\nscreen and then they observed the scintillation. But since we had another\ndevise, namely; the detection and counting of single Alpha particles in an\nionization chamber, which could be used both in the daytime and at night\nthey generally used the latter way of testing expired air. Our experiments\nare not of a quantitative nature-that is we have not standardized the Zinc\nscreen. We can easily do this with one of the types of apparatus which I\nhave set up. (See figure I on inclosed sketch. Figure 2 gives a very simpli-\nfied form) Would it not be very interesting to set up one of these and\nexperiment with the expired air from Mrs. Dumshoff?\nWith very kindest regards, I remain,\nHerman Schlundt\nHerman Schlundt\nHS/BB"
}