Hello, fellow Jeds n Jeddaras
I was wondering about the healing potency of red martian medicine: Would the normal red martian healing salves/pills found in a first aid kit be enough to heal radiation-type poisoning?
Would another martian race’s medicine heal this affliction?
Thanks for your time!
An interesting question. Burroughs uses “radium” for the rifles and pistols, and I believe it also appears as part of the lightbulbs, but I’m not sure if “radiation” ever gets mentioned. Perhaps it comes down to the fact that he started the series in 1912 and radiation wasn’t a big thing pre-atomic era on Earth, so he might not have thought much about it.
My non-canon reply would probably be that folks on Barsoom seem to have a lot of medical knowledge, as lifetimes are long and disease practically non-existent, so they probably would have some sort of medical knowledge that extends to radiation treatment as well.
Yes, agreed, but would this treatment be “on hand”, like in a first aid kit?
I think this has to be done on a campaign-by-campaign basis, since radiation isn’t really a part of Burroughs’ writings. If you want to have radioactive stuff spread all around there ought to be antidote in regular med kits (or at least in every major city). Otherwise, radiation becomes a nasty death-trap. 
I was thinking of using it as a sort of doomsday scenario from Barsoom’s bellicose hi tech past.
In that case, I’d be tempted to make a quest out of it. Assume that somebody in a far away city has a cure and the heroes need to travel across Barsoom in order to acquire a few doses. This could be a great side-adventure. 
By the way, I’m re-reading the Barsoom books and encountered a passage where Carter laments that he is injured and has none of that awesome “miracle salve” that the Green Martian women whip up. That could be a detail to follow up with if you are considering how to do an anti-radiation treatment.
You mean going to Green martian turf?