The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West, Coast Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 22nd, 1925. HOPEFUL RESEARCH.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 July 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West, Coast Times WEDNESDAY, JULY 22nd, 1925. HOPEFUL RESEARCH.

That then' is a goad deal of hope attached to the research devolopmen Is jast disclosed in respect to the cancer daccilns, may lie gathered from the full (•aided accounts of the discoveries made. At all events a. great advance has been marie in the scientilic knowledge regarding cancer, and the conclusions reached as to causes and facilities for growth, at once opens the «'av to a .search for possible remedies to abate if not to cure the fell disease. which has heroine so rampant. As a contemporary remarks, it is a great many years since the newspapers of the uorhl have been called upon to give a.s much publicity to the details of a scientilic discovery as has been the case with the reported ease of Knglish investigators in isolating the organism that is the direct cause of cancer. The reasons for the wide interest that the discovery has evoked are to ho found in the widespread providence of the disease—-it is said to he the cause of the dentil of one person in every seven over the age of fifty—and in the failure that has hitherto attended efforts to ascertain something tangible about the wav in which cancerous growths are propagated. There seems little room for doubt that, what is claimed to have been accomplished has been accomplished. The National Institute of .Medical Research at Mount Vernon, Hampstead, enjoys very high standing in the world of medical science and two savants concerned in the discovery. Dr Oyo and Mr d. K. Barnard, are well-known. Had the announcement tome front an American or even a Continental .source it would have been received with much less confidence. As the Knglish newspapers have been taking pains to make clear, the discovery of the physical factors that lie at the root of rancor does not mean that a cure for the disease has keen found. But it appears to us as laymen that the advance that has been made is a very considerable one. Not only had the organism that is the active principle in cancer—the virus, as it is termed been identified, but tho conditions of its malignant efficiency have been defined. The “Morning Post” with a pessimism that seems characteristic, remarks sadly that death itself may some day he traced to some organism that can he isolated and photographed. but that will not mean that immortality is to be achieved. The Hindoo journal's intention obviously was to discount the too-sanguine hopes that might he raised in the minds of sufferers from this very painful disease, and the intention is praiseworthy. But without suggesting that the cure of cancer is immediately in sight, we think the world is entitled to recall that in certain other important cases the discovery of the virus of n disease has been followed within a comparatively short period hv the discovery of

nn effective antidote. The earliest announcement of the discovery of tho cancer bacillus contained a. suggestion that the investigators had not only been able to invest birds and mammalsl with cancer, but had been able to render these creatures immune from tho disease. It would seem therefore, that the investigations have been very complete and searching in their scope, and that they v, ill afford a. firm basis for research into the methods of curing the disease. Such a discovery would mean an enormous reduction in human suffering, and the work of the scientists on this problem will be the subject of concern to millions of people. It "id be gratifying if the work of l)r dye and Mr Barnard is crowned by the discovery by British investigators of an absolute cure for cancer.