Radithor

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Radithor

Radithor was a well known patent medicine

Patent medicine

Patent medicine is the somewhat misleading term given to various medical compounds sold under a variety of names and labels, though they were, for the most part, actually medicines with trademarks, not patented medicines....
/snake oil

Snake oil

Snake oil is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for compounds offered as medicines which implies that they are fake, fraudulent, quackery, or ineffective....
that is possibly the best known example of radioactive quackery

Radioactive quackery

Radioactive quackery refers to various products sold during the early 20th century, after the discovery of radioactivity, which promised radioactivity as a cure for various ills....
. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum each of the Radium

Radium

Radium is a radioactive chemical element which has the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Its appearance is almost pure white, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, turning black....
226 and 228 isotopes, as well as 1 microcurie of isothiouranium, a cheaper radioactive compound.

Radithor was manufactured from 1918-28 by the Bailey Radium Laboratories, Inc., of East Orange, New Jersey

East Orange, New Jersey

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Encyclopedia

Radithor was a well known patent medicine

Patent medicine

Snake oil

Radioactive quackery

Radium

East Orange, New Jersey

East Orange is a City in Essex County, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city had a total population of 69,824....
. The head of the laboratories was listed as Dr. William J. A. Bailey, not a medical doctor. It was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine".

These radium elixirs were marketed similar to the way opiates were commonly advertised with Laudanum

Laudanum

Laudanum , also known as opium tincture or tincture of opium, is an alcoholic Herbalism of opium. It is made by combining ethanol with opium latex or powder....
an age earlier, and electrical cure-alls during the same time period such as the Prostate Warmer.

The story of socialite Eben Byers

Eben Byers

Eben McBurney Byers was a wealthy United States socialite, Sportsperson, and Business magnate. Byers earned notoriety in the early 1930s when he died from radiation poisoning after consuming a popular patent medicine made from radium dissolved in water....
's death from Radithor consumption and the associated radiation poisoning

Radiation poisoning

Radiation poisoning, also called "radiation sickness" or a "creeping dose", is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation....
found its way into the Wall Street Journal under the title "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off," which led to the strengthening of the Food and Drug Administration

Food and Drug Administration

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is an Government agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is responsible for regulating and supervising the safety of foods, dietary supplements, Medications, vaccines, Biopharmaceutical, blood transfusion, medical devices, Electromagnetic radiation-emitting devices, veteri...
's powers and the demise of most radiation quack cures.

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