Word: phosphorus
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Hospital told some colleagues in Cleveland that Memorial's doctors thought they had the answer. Their weapon, made by California Atom-Smasher Ernest Orlando Lawrence: radioactive phosphorus...
Radioactive phosphorus, which Professor Lawrence puts up in liquid form, can be swallowed, in minute quantities, without danger. At Memorial. Drs. Kenney, Helen Quincy Woodard and Leonidas Marinelli gave small quantities of the stuff to patients who were to be operated on-and to a few about to die. When the tumors were removed, or the patients autopsied, the doctors calculated the amount of phosphorus absorbed by the cancerous tissue. They found that the chemical settled in the tumors, barely affected normal cells. Once in the tumors, the phosphorus acts like radium, burning out the rebel cells...
...early 1900s, Henry Clapp Sherman, now a professor at Columbia, discovered the value of minerals-iron, calcium, phosphorus. Then came the researches on vitamins, beginning with the discovery of a "vitamine" (B) by a Pole, Casimir Funk...
...German bitterness grew really ear nest over "a particularly detestable, low-down British weapon": the "self-igniting leaf." This was described as a three-inch cardboard or celluloid card with a cut-out centre, into which was pasted a flat core of guncotton and phosphorus. When dropped by night, the cards were slightly damp. When they dried out-it might take ten minutes or ten years, depending on where they fell-the reaction of oxygen on phosphorus made them burst into flame. This weapon, railed the Germans, was "obviously directed against the German youth, the German harvest. . . ." Officials complained that...
When invective is the ammunition, Italy is quick to fire. The press accused Britain of breaking explicit agreements not to use chemical warfare. The dropping of the phosphorus calling cards was the signal, said Corriere della Sera of Milan, "of a new method of offensive to which fit reply must be given." Benito Mussolini's Popolo d'ltalia echoed ominously with a new version of the Mosaic law: "Two eyes for one, two teeth for one, and so on until they cry, 'Enough...