Their method of research has been justly compared in originality and importance to the process of spectrum analysis.

To isolate a radioactive substance, the first thing is to measure the activity of a certain compound suspected of containing this substance, and this compound is chemically separated.
We then again take in hand all the products obtained, and by measuring their activity anew, it is ascertained whether the substance sought for has remained in one of these products, or is divided among them, and if so, in what proportion.

The spectroscopic reaction which we may use in the course of this separation is a thousand times less sensitive than observation of the activity by means of the electrometer.
Though the principle on which the operation of the concentration of the radium rests is admirable in its simplicity, its application is nevertheless very laborious.

Tons of uranium residues have to be treated in order to obtain a few decigrammes of pure salts of radium.
Radium is characterised by a special spectrum, and its atomic weight, as determined by Madame Curie, is 225; it is consequently the higher homologue of barium in one of the groups of Mendeleef.

Salts of radium have in general the same chemical properties as the corresponding salts of barium, but are distinguished from them by the differences of solubility which allow of their separation, and by their enormous activity, which is about a hundred thousand times greater than that of uranium.
Radium produces various chemical and some very intense physiological reactions.