Mercier Atomic Energy Applicator

The Mercier Atomic Energy Applicator (or Mercier Radioactive Device), named for the inventor, A. F. Mercier, is a radiological therapeutic device consisting of a wooden base with a lead-foil covered cylinder fitted inside, containing a small quantity of an unspecified radioactive substance, into which a sample of the patient's blood is to be placed for a period of twenty-four hours to be exposed to the radiations in preparation for re-injection, a process (the "Mercier Blood Treatment") that would "readjust the structure of the living molecule," causing disease to be cured by "correcting the chemistry." The radioactive substance, key to the proposed efficacy of the device, was reportedly given to Mercier by "some little men in space ships;" the devices seized by the FDA contained quantities of radium barium chloride, thorium oxide, and lanthanum oxide.

The applicator was manufactured by Mercier, and used principally in New Mexico and Arizona, notably by Dr. A. H. Lee (of Scottsdale) and Bernice Kussell, founder of the Valley of the Sun School for Handicapped Children in Phoenix, and co-founder with Mercier of a hospital in Las Vegas. These operations were ended following interventions by the FDA and local health authorities.