Hospitals Supplied with Radium
The year that has passed has seen little change in the medical profession in the Union of South Africa. The acquisition of adequate supplies of radium by the three provinces of the union, Transvaal, Natal and the Cape, has been made possible by public subscription, initiated, thanks to the support given by the lay press, by individual physicians. The department of public health declared that radium was a matter falling exclusively within the province of the hospitals with which public health, as a department, has nothing to do. Local funds were established, with the object of purchasing small quantities of the element, it being supposed, by the public, the government and the profession alike, that radium could be handled and cancer patients treated with radium by any general practitioner. Those who knew something about the matter vigorously protested against this interpretation of the situation and urged