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S. Gilbert Scott, F. Hernaman-Johnson, The Constitutional Effects of X-rays as Determined by Blood Serum Tests, British Journal of Radiology, Volume 8, Issue 90, 1 June 1935, Pages 365–372, https://doi.org/10.1259/0007-1285-8-90-365
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Abstract
To sum up:—
1. The vanadic acid test carried out in apparently healthy people gives results of sufficient constancy to establish a norm.
2. Where the vanadic acid test varies from the normal, variations in the “green field” appear to be a measure of resistance to disease, whereas the red field measures toxicity.
3. Although the test is non-specific the graph affords a great deal of useful information when the disease is already known.
4. When the test is positive in certain diseases, it can be brought back to normal by suitable wide-field X-ray therapy. Examples have been given in cases of asthma, spondylitis and breast cancer.
5. The use of the vanadic acid test is not, of course, limited to the control of X-ray treatment. In cancer, for instance, the favourable alteration in the graphs may be shown as a result of therapy of another kind, such as the injection of colloidal selenium.
6. While the local effects of X rays will always be of importance, the time has come when it should be realised that X-radiation is also a powerful drug, having a pharmacology and therapeutics of its own, which will repay the closest study.
