text: In the early 1910s, French pharmacist Alexandre Jaboin postulated the principles of "microcurietherapy", inspired by the success of curietherapy in treating certain cancers: he assumed that very small doses of radium would stimulate living cells and increase their energy. These notions were not scientifically demonstrated, but they triggered a fad for radium-laden medicine and cosmetics. Several brands started exploiting the market in the course of the 1910s, notably Activa and Radior.