William John Aloysius Bailey (May 25, 1884 – May 17, 1949) was an American patent medicine inventor and salesman. A Harvard University dropout, Bailey falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and promoted the use of radioactive radium as a cure for coughs, flu, and other common ailments.[1] Although Bailey's Radium Laboratories in East Orange, New Jersey, was continually investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, he died wealthy from his many devices and products, including an aphrodisiac called Arium, marketed as a restorative that "renewed happiness and youthful thrill into the lives of married peoples whose attractions to each other had weakened."[1][2]
In 1918, Bailey claimed that radium added to drinking water could be used to treat dozens of conditions, from mental illness and headaches to diabetes, anemia, constipation, and asthma.[4]
In 1922 he had had some success selling medicines like Arium radium tablets (‘Radium! Gives Super-Man Power’) through his other company, Associated Radium Chemists Inc. The company also sold Linarium (radium liniment for aches and pains), Dentarium (radium dentifrice for teeth and gums) and Kaparium (radium hair tonic).[5]
Bailey became rich from the sale of Radithor, a well known patent medicine/snake oil that is possibly the best known example of radioactive quackery. Bailey created Radithor by dissolving radium salts in water to deliver 1 microcurie of radiation from each of 226Ra and 228Ra, claiming its curative properties were due to stimulation of the endocrine system. Radithor was advertised as "A Cure for the Living Dead" as well as "Perpetual Sunshine".[6]
Radithor was a chronically lethal mixture, and was responsible for the death of Eben Byers in 1932, who died of radiation-induced cancer after drinking about 1,400 bottles of Radithor.[6][7]
Bailey also invented the Radiendocrinator around 1930. This was a cased source, intended to be worn against the skin.[8]
^ ab"William J.A. Bailey". New York Times. May 18, 1949. Retrieved September 25, 2011. William J.A. Bailey, inventor and writer, died here last night at the age of 64. Born in Boston, Bailey attended Boston Latin School and was graduated in ...
^ ab"The Radiendocrinator". Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum Collection.
^"William J.A. Bailey". Boston Globe. May 18, 1949. Retrieved September 25, 2011. ... for William Bailey 64 writer and wartime manager of the electronic division of International Business Machines Company who died last night will be held ...