Department of Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois, Chicago 12, Illinois Received July $3, 196d ... General syntheses of a-amidinium thiosulfates (Bunte salts) and S,N'-diaryI-a -( acety1mercapto)scetamidines as poten- tial antiradiation drugs are described. ... With the discovery by Patt3 in 1950 that mice could be protected by cysteine against otherwise lethal doses of radiation by X-rays, a new field of investigation was opened. In 1951, Bacq4 ...