This tin container held forty-two tablets of "genuine radium." At the time of manufacture (ca. 1922-1927), it only cost one dollar. Most of the tablets have broken open although a few are still intact. The manufacturer, Associated Radium Chemists, Inc. of New York, stated, "Take two tablets with glass of water before or after each meal. To derive the most beneficial effects, ARIUM should be taken regularly as directed."

Size: 3"  x  2"  x  1"

Exposure Rates:  ca. 1-2 uR/hr above background at one foot, ca. 30 uR/hr above background on contact.

An analysis of Arium by the Department of Agriculture in 1926 indicated that the tablets were mainly composed of lithium carbonate, starch and talc., with 8.58 nanocuries of radium in each tablet. The following year another "analysis of the article by this Department showed that it contained radium [2.6 nanocuries per tablet] and strychnine."

Associated Radium Chemists, Inc. was a William J. Bailey operation - the first of his many companies, all short-lived, that sold radium containing nostrums. Unfortunately, not all of Bailey's products were as harmless as Arium. The most infamous was Radithor, a radium-containing solution that was responsible for the death of Eben Byers.