During World War I, Delbet was searching for a solution that could cleanse wounds but not damage tissue as traditional antiseptics did.

Serendipitously, he discovered that when the magnesium chloride solution was taken orally or intravenously, it appeared to be a remedy for other ailments.

Delbet also believed that magnesium was beneficial to the efficiency of white blood cells, of which he described in his treatise "Politique Préventive du Cancer".

Dupont's research concluded that the Sara people's diet based on millet was rich in magnesium chloride which explained the lack of cancer among them.

[1] With Jean-François-Auguste Le Dentu (1841-1926) and others, he was co-publisher of the multi-volume Traité de chirurgie clinique et opératoire (1901 et seq.).