From the October 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Each month we visit Dr. Blaufox’s Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts to take a look back at the medical equipment that cleared the way for what patients encounter in doctors’ offices and operating rooms of today. Some equipment may be recognizable, while other inventions featured here have since become obsolete or have had their usefulness discredited.
Category: Cures Radionuclides
Estimated Date: 1920
Name: Radithor
Manufacturer: Bailey Radium Laboratories
Description: Small vial labeled radithor. Wipe revealed a small amount of beta or alpha activity residual. The glass vial is brown and measures 2” x 1 1/4”. The label reads certified radioactive water contains radium and mesothorium. The chart showing the accumulated radioactivity in the skeleton of Eban Byers is shown here as well as the advertising material and a booklet that is combined advertising and sphintharyscope. Byers was prescribed this by his physician and felt improved when he took it. He took increasing amount over several years and finally died a horrible death from radiation poisoning. This was one of the events that led to led to the regulation of radioactive materials in the 1920’s and an appreciation of the potential dangers.
