Cancer from Frozen Meat.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 67, 23 March 1904, Page 4

Cancer from Frozen Meat.

MEDICAL OPINIONS. A. number of Christchurch medical men were interviewed by a representative of Truth with regard to the possibility of cancer being caused hy eating frozen meat. The first doctor who was seen said that in his opinion there was not the remotest possibility of this occurring. He had seen the suggestion a long while ago. It was a foolish Btatement, deliberately and maliciously started, he could only think, by the antagonists of the frozen meiit industry. Hie matter was too ridiculous to investigate, and reminded him of a supposition which was raised some years ago that the disease was caused by eating tomatoes. Several correspondents wrote to the British Medical Journal to learn il this were the case, and finally an article was published in the journal ridiculing the assertion. The cause of cancer is not really known, but undoubtedly it was nothing so simple as the eating of one food 01 another. The disease was fairly prevalent in New Zealand, where we ate comparatively little frozen meat, and it was common in Great Britain be. fore frozen meat was introduced. As a matter of fact, there were manj distinct forms of cancer, and probably they had different origins. Gen erally speaking, the disease chiefly attacked people of an advanced age though occasionally persons less than thirty years old were alTected It was as misleading, however, tc speak of cancer as if it were a single well-defined disease, as to talk o fever in the same way.lt was simplj absurd to suppose that any form o the complaint was caused by catini frozen meat. Said another medical man " think there is absolutely no reasoi for the supposition. It arose, should think, from the iricreasini consumption of frozen meat and th fact that cancer is supposed to hav increased also. There is nothing ti show a connection between the twi courses."

" Cancer has been attributed to a hundred things/' remarked another medical sceptic, " and most of the explanations are buncombe." Two more doctors could only explain the supposition by suggesting that it was deliberately formulated in order to prejudice the trade. "In the causing of cancer," one of them stated, " frozen meat could not have the slightest effect." " The evidence has been entirely against the suggestion," declared the other.