Letters Sent to Dr. Herman Schlundt, July 19, 1932

July 19th, 1932. Dr. Herman Schlundt, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Dear Dr. Schlundt: I note from your letter of July lst, that you have had a communication from àr. Vanwolkenten relative to conducting some experiments to determine the effects of radium emanation when ingested thru drinking water. The paper you refer to by Monnery of Paris, I cited to you in a letter some time ago - thru the courtesy of Ir. Van Wolkenten I have a copy of this article which I am sending to you under separate cover. I will, however, appreciate your returning this article to me after you have had an opportunity to peruse it. In view of the fact that radium when lodged in the system over long periods of time produces physiological changes, about which we have decided there is no question, I eannot help but feel that radon teken into the system thru drinking water cannot be classed ,as the medical association sees fit to do, as having no therapeutic value. An agent, such as this, when lodged in the system, that has proven itself to be so disasterous must of necessity have some effect either deleterious or beneficial, if in the system only for a transitory period. In cases where beneficial results have been ascribed to the drinking of water charged with radon, I feel that it is quite likely that pert of such benefits may be psychological, but on the other hand I an also equally convine- ed that in the event the waters so drunk contained any appreciable amount of radon, there must have been some physiclogical effect taken fence in the system. Radon must be considered as no different than any other drug, a good many of which when administered in the proper dosage are distinctly beneficial for specific conditions, while if administered in small or too large dosases will either prove of no benefit or deleterious. Unquestionably there has been a gread amount of bunk connected with the sale and distribution of waters charged with radon, and B. good many of the devices sold have not con- tained sufficient radon to produce any physiological change either beneficial or deletericus. In the case of Mr. Ven Wolkenten's machine he is utilizing a sufficient amount of radium to assure charging the water with a fairly goodly amount of radon. I believe that he claims that 4 glass of water drom from the machine daily will contain an average of 7000 to 8000 Mache Units. I have examined hia machine and find that his clains are conservative, The one question in my mind relative to Mr. Van Tedkenten's machine is as to whether