[History of electric colloidal metals in therapy : the case of selenium]

At the beginning of the 1910's period, several scientists and pharmaceutical companies are working actively on colloids, which were discovered in 1845. The pharmaceutical use of"electrical colloids" was the subject of publications and researches for a therapeutic usage, mainly in infectology and oncology. One hun- dred years later, it is under the name ofnanoparticles that the same subject comes to light-and is the source of new works for a potential use for cancer treatment. The example of selenium, which was introduced under a colloidal form in medicine in 1912, is studied here, but other metals could have given the same result: metallic nanoparticles evaluation in pharmacy is not new!