In the fourth decade of twentieth century, cancer patients were treated here with Radium needle and Deep X-ray machine.

(So long as the radium needles were in his tongue they had kept him under lock and key, like a valuable in a bank vault.)

The treatments they had were radiotherapy, implantation of Radium needles, injections of hydrogenated mustard and surgery.

He did further research in the United States and was the first in his profession to use radium needles or radium tubes in the treatment of cancer in Australia.

But officials agree that no estimates of the difficulty of the decontamination job - or its cost - can be made until after the radium needles are shipped away and Geiger counter readings taken.

The ministry had the cancer clinic supplied with radium needles, a gamma gun, 'Stabilivolt' machines, the newest blood-transfusion equipment and the latest synthetic drugs, but there was no place for ordinary dusters and brushes on so elevated a list.

"The owners are in the process of removing all the spots where we found any reading of radium that came from the use of radium needles for cancer care at the turn of the century," said Sandra Mullin, associate commissioner of public affairs for the New York City Health Department.