Radium and the Origins of the National Cancer Institute

132 C a n t o rexceptions, note the report that Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester,New York, obtained 200 mg. of radium, worth about $6,000 for cancertreatment and research. “Hospital Gets $6,000 in Radium,” Democrat andChronicle (Rochester), 26 September 1939.59. For example, at a time when Grace Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut,had no radium, an article in the hospital journal bemoaned the huge sumsgiven to cancer research while so little was given to routine radium therapy.“Radium Valueless Unless Funds Are At Hand for Cancer Cure: Lack ofRadium Supply for Cancer Treatment Deplored,” The Grace Hospital News,August 1937, 1 (6): 4.60. NACC meeting, 9 November 1937, pp. 99-101.61. The Canadian Eldorado Radium Company told Winthrop K. Coolidge in1939 that within a year or two the price of radium could rise to $35,000per gram. The Japanese were purchasing radium steadily, several institutionsin the United States had substantial appropriations for its purchase, andsupplies were limited. Coolidge also reported that Dr. Curtis at theNational Bureau of Standards also expected the price to rise, though he didnot venture an opinion as to how high it might go. Winthrop K. Coolidgeto Howard A. Kelly, 31 May 1939, Howard A. Kelly papers, Box 7, Folder,“Radium 1939,” Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, The Johns HopkinsMedical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland. On the Belgian-Canadianagreement, see Landa, “First Nuclear Industry,” and Landa, “Buried Treasureto Buried Waste.”62. For example, the Citizen’s Hospital in Talladega, Alabama, wanted to sellthe government 50 mg. of radium, Claude Sims to J. N. Baker, 20 January1939, and J. N. Baker to Claude Sims, 23 January 1939. Department ofPublic Health, Bureau of Administration, Administrative Files of theState Health Office, 1939, SG 7106, Folder “United States Public HealthService 1939,” Alabama Department of Archives and History. Also, HowardA. Kelly, the physician who established the Kelly Hospital in Baltimore,was advised to try the NIH when he considered selling radium in 1939.Charles L. Parsons to Howard A. Kelly, 7 June 1939, Box 7, Folder, “Radium1939,” Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, The Johns HopkinsMedical Institutions.63. Hon, “National Cancer Institute Radium Loan Program,” p. 4. A 1939 pressrelease noted that 8.5 grams of radium were allocated to 35 hospitals in1939. Later a further 13 were allocated in 1940, suggesting the onehospital had already dropped out, possibly the Fulton State Hospital inMissouri. On the original loan, see the U.S. Public Health Service pressrelease B-3006, 21 July 1939, in RG 26-2-3, “U.S. Public Health ServiceRecords,” Georgia Department of Archives and History, Morrow, Georgia.On the second loan, see “Radium Loans,” Bulletin of the Greenville CountyMedical Society, 1940, 3: 108-9.