CANCER GERM TESTS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 September 1925, Page 4

CANCER GERM TESTS

DR DYES I’ROCKSS. LONDON, July 20. Tlie experiments by which Dr \\ . E. G\e. assisted by Air J. I'.. Barnard, F.K.S., made his cancer discovery show the great difficulties tlie rosea fell worker has to face and the more, titan normal patient perseverance he must possess. As recorded in the " Lancet ” they are technical beyond the understanding ni the non-medical man. lull one nr two ot them may lie approximately explained. ’1 he essence of his discovery is that two factors are required to produce a canter-- namely, a virus, which in this ease is an extremely minute microbe, ami a chemical extract from a canicr tumour. Due experiment to prove lids is the Jiill'iwing: Port,on of a lam-er tumour was disintegrated by grinding it up with sand. Ringer's solution (a solution ol common -alt. with potassium, and calcium chloride) was then added and the mixture was iiliered through paper pulp and sand. Alter that the llitiil was placed in t In' holioiil ol a boiling tube by means ol a pipette, very I'arelulls so as not lo wet tbc -ides ol the lithe. HARMLESS FILTRATE. Next a few drops ot ehlorolornt were run down the sides ot tin* tube, and the tube was then plan'll in an incubator with a regulated temperature At the end ol hall an hour the ohlornIo r m was mixed repeatedly witli the filtrate by means ot a Pasteur pipette (a little glass tube which call take up very small quantities of fluid) and the lulie was again incubated tor three bout's. Tbe chloroform was then completely reinovoil with a Gcryk pump, j Tins tilt rate was found to be inI capable of producing infection owing to destruction ol the virus by tlie i Idoroloriii. Three I'hii-keMs were then inoculated. . One gill a dose lit I his lilt rntv anil ilur*mg a period ot -i\ weeks nr, cancer del eloped. Another riiieben was inoculated with the virus alone, which also required elaborate preparation, and no cancer appeared. GANGER DEVELO'PS. A third chicken was inoculated with both tlie virus and the tumour filtrate, ami by the .‘loth day it bad developed a large cancer. " ll is clear from this experiment writes Dr five, "that a tumour extract— tbe sand filiate—-t rca ted with chloroform, and thereby rendered innocuous, has a property which, aided by a property of an inert primary culture” ; the virus which alone cannot produce cancer'), "can bring about the formation of a neoplasm ” (Die cancer t umoiir). In another investigation the infective fluids were spun in a conical tube for two hours at the rate of 0,000 revolutions a minute, more than a million revolutions in alb A chicken inoculated with the upper part of the resulting fluid in the light side developed only a very small tumour. while the inoculation of tbe same chicken on tbe left side with the lower portion of the fluid produced a large tumour growth. To achieve the great result many other forms of experiment were enrI ried out. all involving prolonged work which would quickly exhaust the enI durance of the average man.