CANCER AND HUMANITY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 950, 4 February 1911, Page 4

CANCER AND HUMANITY.

“SOME RAY OF HOPE.” Sir Alfred Pearce Gould, K.C, V. 0., Senior Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, on December Bth, delivered before the Royal College of Surgeons of England the twenty-ninth annual Bradshaw lecture. He chose for the subject of his lecture “Cancer,” and in his opening remarks referred to the excellent work carried out for some years by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund under the directorship of Dr Bashford, Sir Alfred pointed out that cancer occurred not only in all races of men, but in all vertebrae animals, birds, reptiles, and fishes. Thousands of experiments upon mice, rats and dogs bad proved that it could be transferred from “host to host,” but towering above these facts was the greater and all-important one, that cancer could not be transferred to an animal of another species. After a reference to the research work which had been recently made in the study of cancer cells at the Middlesex Hospital cancer research laboratories, the lecturer said cancer was the result of a breach or failure of fundamental cell law, a law so majestic that obedience to it resulted in perfect development, perfect health, the full measure of days, and disobedience to it might slowly spell out all the inscrutable woes ot cancer. Certain conditions known to exert an influence on the causation of cancer were next dealt with, including age, by which it is fully established that cancer is greatly influenced ; sex ; X-rays (whose influence upon cell life was considered to be most important) ; the most important of all, alcohol. Statistics revealed the fact that cancer was twice as Irequent among brewers and publicans as among clergymen, and that the cancer incidence in any trade varied with the attendant habits as regards alcohol. With regard to these various conditions, Sir Alfred expressed the opinion that clinical experience and experimental pathology threw some ray ot hope across the dark sea of malignant disease. The deep impress of the primal laws of development held the cells of tissues in true and loyal obedience to the very end, in the almost infinite majority of cases, and in the large majority of individuals. The incidence of disease, and immunity from its initial attack, were, of course, complementary, and the same fact could be expressed either in terms of disease or in terms of immunity. Thus, in spite of added years, and of all unfavourable conditions which tended to wear down the obedience of cell life to its fundamental laws, 90 per cent, ot men and women who pass down the hill of life held this dread enemy at bay. With regard to the disappearance of cancerous growth, Sir Alfred reported that those who were studying the disease in mice reported that in these animals it was quite a frequent occurrence for a grafted cancerous growth, after attaining some size, to slowly shrink and disappear, and in some series of experiments a large proportion of the grafts that had “ taken ” had, after a period of growth, spontaneously vanished. In conclusion, the lecturer referred to various cases of cancer which he had traced at the Middlesex Hospital, and though in some of these cases the disease was not “cured” in the sense of being wholly and permanently removed, yet in several there was a strong reason for thinking that the word “cure” could be justly used. In recording these cases he did not mention the treatments employed, because his present purpose was not to vaunt a remedy but to state a fact —that cancer, even when advanced in degree and of long duration, might get better, and might even get worse. “ There is,” he continued, “ cure of cancer apart from operative removal. All therapeutic cures are obtainable only by the working of physiological forces, and the first hope of therapeutic success comes from observation of the efficiency of unaided Nature to accomplish cure. In the darkness of night it is everything to know that there is a sun towards which the earth is revolving, and that if we fix our eyes on the east we shall soon see the grey promise of dawn and then the many-coloured heralds of the golden sun itself. And, as the victims of cancer call to us in the dark night of despair, “ Watchman, what of the night:'” it is much to know that for the cancerstricken man there is also a sun of healing. When the biologist shall know the laws that govern cellgrowth, with a knowledge akin in its sweep and accuracy to that of the astronomer, he will have power —the power to prevent —to control and to cure cancer.”