BECQUEREL, HENRI et P. (PIERRE) CURIE. - REPORTING PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF RADIUM.

Action physiologique des rayons du radium. (The physiological Actions of Radium Rays).

(Paris, Gauthier-Villars), 1901. 4to. No wrappers. In: "Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de L'Academie des Sciences", Tome 132, No 22.. Pp. (1277-) 1375. (Entire issue offered). The paper: pp. 1289-1291.

First printing of a milestone paper in medical physiology as the report given of the physiological effects (radiactive burns) on his own arm lead directly to study the actions of radium on different diseases and its medical use in general. Radium's use gave promising results as it destroyed diseased cells, tumors and some cancers. The therapeutic method was to be called "Curietherapy".

"The German scientists Walkhoff and Giesel announced in 1900 that the new substance had certain physiological effects; Pierre Curie at once applied the technique which seemed to him most practical. Indifferent to danger, he exposed his arm to the action of radium. To his joy, a lesion appeared. He watched over it, followed its evolution and, in a report to the Academy, phlegmatically described the symptoms observed (the offered paper).
After the action of the rays, the skin became red over a surface of six square centimetres; the appearance was that of a burn, but the skin was not painful, or barely so. At the end of several days the redness, without growing larger, began to increase in intensity; on the twentieth day it formed scabs, and then a wound which was dressed with bandages; on the forty-second day the epidermis began to form again on the edges, working toward the centre, and fifty-two days after the action of the rays there was still a surface of one square centimetre in the condition of a wound, which assumed a greyish appearance indicating deeper mortification." (Third Millenium Library. Biohistory).

Order-nr.: 47432