radium

The chemical element (symbol Ra) with an atomic number of 88. It is a soft, shiny and silvery radioactive alkaline earth metal.

Madame [Marie] Curie, working with her distinguished husband, isolated and first traced to its true origin the source of the marvellous power which has thus commenced to revolutionise our philosophy of physics. This new element has appropriately been named "Radium;" but it has also been shown that there are many other, though less powerful, radio-active elements, details of which are recorded in the sequel. To be precise, radium, per se, has not yet been isolated as a metal, but only in the form of salts,—chlorides and bromides. [...] It is supposed that the molecules of radium (composed of similar atoms) during their decomposition into those of the gas helium, are also frittered down into heat and, in part, are liberated as radio-activity.

The persistence of radio-activity on glass vessels which have contained radium is remarkable. Filters, beakers, and dishes used in the laboratory for operations with radium, after having been washed in the usual way, remain radio-active: a piece of blende screen held inside the beaker or other vessel immediately glowing with the presence of radium.

A type of cloth woven from silk or synthetic yarn, often with a shiny appearance.

City retailers are doing well with high-class radiums printed in bright greens, brilliant purples and strong yellows. Such are the high novelties.

In printed silks for outer garments and linings there are crêpe de chines, silk and cotton crêpes, georgettes, radiums and mousselines de soie. [...] [O]n radiums; Japanese print designs, silhouetted with parasols or flowers and shrubs, treated in Japanese style, on dark grounds, are employed. There are also a number of futuristic figures printed on radiums.

To treat (a tumour, etc.) with radium.

We want popular verbs for several operations introduced by modern science. The X-rays, the Finsen treatment for lupus, the operation of radium for cancer, and what not—what are the words for these? A man is guillotined or hanged; his leg is amputated; he is trepanned. What is it when he is rayed, Finsened, radiumed? [From the St. James's Gazette.]

The victims thereof [i.e., of rheumatism] are drenched with salicylates and iodides; they are sent to spas to be bombarded by the doucheur and spanked by the masseur; they are subjected to electrical ecstasies and suffer Zander contortions; they are cataphoresed, vaccinated, serummed, radiumed and dieted, with results which vary from the sublime to the pathetic.