Throughout history, the Fellows of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia have been at the forefront of many advancements in the history of medicine, not least of whom was Dr. Robert Abbe, a pioneer not only in the field of plastic surgery, but also in the use of radium in medical therapy.
Jeffrey Womack, a Library volunteer and doctoral student at the University of Houston, and Tristan Dahn, Digital Projects Librarian at the Historical Medical Library, explore the discovery of radium by Pierre and Marie Curie, and tell the story of early experimentations with radium, including Dr. Abbe’s self-experimentation, and the use of radium in such “health” products as the “Radium Emanator.”
Abbe’s long correspondence with Marie Curie culminated with her visit to the College in May 1921, during which Curie donated the piezo-electrometer currently on display in the Hutchinson alcove of the Mütter Museum.
The exhibit may be viewed at http://bit.ly/1Qpl4qA or by going to http://www.cppdigitallibrary.org/exhibits/.
Jeffrey Womack is a doctoral student at the University of Houston, completing his dissertation on the development of radium and x-ray therapies between 1895 and 1935, under the direction of Martin Melosi. His recent publications include “Nuclear Weapons, Dystopian Deserts, and Science Fiction Cinema,” in Vulcan: The International Journal of the Social History of Military Technology 1, No. 1 (2013; Bart Hacker, editor), and “Miracle in the Sky: Solar Power Satellites,” in American Energy Policy in the 1970s, (Robert Lifset, editor; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014). He is also a contributor to the Encyclopedia of American Environmental History. Jeffrey is currently based in the Philadelphia area, where he teaches at Drexel University.
Tristan Dahn is a recent graduate of the Library and Information Studies program at McGill University. He joined the Library staff in September 2015, and is currently overseeing the digitization of 20th century state medical journals through the Library’s partnership in the Medical Heritage Library. Tristan also is leading the Library’s experiments in the digital humanities.
Why did this digital exhibition make no mention of Pennsylvania’s role in the production of radium? Sellersville, Bucks County, was home to the largest radium producing facility in the world circa 1913. I would think that would have been worthy of mention here, especially due to the town being a suburb of Philadelphia.
http://www.slideshare.net/Ax318960/trenton-evening-times-january-8-1914
As you probably noticed, I mostly omitted discussion of radium production. Initially I planned to have a portion of the exhibit devoted exclusively to industrial production in Pennsylvania and nearby New Jersey, but I eventually decided to cut that material, for a couple of reasons. The first was that I tried to tie the exhibit to materials from CPP’s own collection, and most of the sales materials in our collection actually came from another Pennsylvania company, Standard Chemical (see the beautiful sales certificate on the page “An Industry is Born”–it is worth clicking on the image and looking at the higher resolution version), as well as from several international producers, including RHG (see the sections on “Radium in the Water” and “Emanation Therapy”). The second reason was that the exhibit had already gotten longer than initially intended, so I needed to cut some material. Since I did not actually have any printed materials or physical objects from the Sellersville operation, and since I chose to focus the exhibit on medical use, rather than production, I decided that the industrial production material did not make sense as part of the exhibit.
I note from your attached URL that your interest in the Sellersville operation relates to the ongoing concerns about environmental damage caused by the various radium operations. If you are interested in learning more about that subject, Deadly Sunshine, by David I. Harvie, Radium Girls, by Claudia Clark, and Deadly Glow, by Ross Mullner, all offer good insights onto the long-term costs of radium production. Radium production, like virtually all mining operations, had major environmental costs, including the production of dangerous waste materials, and many of the locations where radium was refined or radium products were produced are now remediation sites under the Superfund program. In my own research on this subject, done for a paper given at the Policy History Conference that will hopefully be appearing as an article in the near future, the most cringe-inducing story that I encountered was of a manufacturer in New Jersey distributing radioactive tailing material as “fill” for children’s sandboxes and playgrounds, on the theory that the radiation would keep the sand free of pests and/or provide health benefits–a kind of sandbox emanation therapy.
Thanks for the post and you interest in the project! I hope that you enjoyed the rest of the exhibit.
-JCW
I do research on F Scott Fitzgerald. I am exploring the idea that Zelda Fitzgerald, his wife, contracted eczema from using radium-containing creams (“cold creams”) on her face for an extended period of time. Zelda’s first outbreak of Eczema occurred in 1929. She certainly was using cold creams of one sort or another for at least ten years prior to 1929. Zelda used expensive creams (from France, which marketed radium cold creams as well), and she used them daily.
For example, here is an advertisement: “Radior” Chin straps are guaranteed to contain Radio-active substance and Radium Bromide. If placed on the face where the skin has become wrinkled or tired the radio-active forces immediately take effect on the nerves and tissues. A continuous steady current of energy flows into the skin, and before long the wrinkles have disappeared, the nerves have become strong and energised, and the tired muscles have become braced up and “ready for service.”
(Radior advertisement, 1915)
Is it possible that, with extended use of a radium-infused product, one might develop eczema over time?
Also: when she is hospitalized in 1929 in Switzerland, the doctors put compresses on her face for the eczema. Might these compresses have minor amounts of radium, mistaken as a curative or palliative?
I look forward to your thoughts on my two questions.
Thanks so much for your exhibit. If you know of any qualified authorities who might shed more light on these issues, please forward their names and emails to me, if you would be so kind.
Extensive use of radium product could certainly have produced an eczema-type skin inflammation. By the end of the ’20s, radium products had generally become more available, owing to improvements in the production process and the discovery of new, richer sources of ore in Africa. Such products would have been available in France.
As for the radium-doped compresses, such things certainly existed (there are advertisements for them in the Hartman papers, here at the College of Physicians Historical Medical Library). A German company, RHG, was selling radium compresses in Philadelphia, so it seems logical that they would have been available in Europe. I would be more likely to blame the skin creams than the treatment, however, given that Zelda already had eczema prior to entering the hospital. Also, by 1929 medical professionals were significantly more cognizant of the dangers of radiation exposure, so although radiation therapy was a recognized treatment for skin diseases, I would think it less likely for a physician to have prescribed a radium treatment than for Zelda to have gotten it in an over-the-counter product.
JCW