THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1909. CANCER RESEARCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9570, 17 August 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 1909. CANCER RESEARCH.

The mineral wealth with which Nature has so freely endowed South Africa, has conferred great benefits on the world at large, through the instrumentality of the great fortunes it has produced. The application of the great wealth amassed by Cecil-Rhodes to his far-reaching scheme of higher education is one that promises to have many important results, some of which may be said to transcend the limits of what is usually understood by education. The Rhodes scholarships hive already begun the great work contemplated by their founder, of drawing together the best minds among the young men of the Anglo-Saxon race. How far their influence may yet extend it would be premature to anticipate; but that they may in the 'uture do great things for the race, and for the world, as was hoped by the founder, is no unreasonable expectation. Now it is announced that another South African fortune has b.een, in part at least, devoted to a purpose which also is of worldwide interest and importance. The gift of part of the late Mr Harry Barnato's great wealth, derived from the South African mines, to the work of fighting one of the most terrible diseases of our time is one tnat must commends itself to every lover of humanity. Whether, as in the case of the Rhodes t scholarships, the credit of the selection of such an object is due in this case to the testator or to those entrusted with the disposal of Mr Barnato*s great fortune does no appear; but few will be disposed to question the excellence of the selection made bv the endowment of a hospital for the treatment of. cancer, ard fori scientific research into the causes and cure of this terrible and increasing disease. It is an interesting and possibly a suggestive fact that different periods of history, and the different conditions of society that have prevailed at those times, appear to have been accompanied by the prevalence of different classes of disease affecting large numbers of people. The leprosy which prevailed in Eastern countries for many centuries, to a far greater extent than now, is perhaps the oldest instance of this tendency clearly indicated by historical records; but in more modern times, while~~the records are more full, the same tendency to what we may call periodic disease is equally noticeable. Again and again from the old Greek and Roman days, down through the centuries of what are known to us as the Middle Ages, we find the records of what may be called epidemic disease, which has devastated whole countries. As we approach the modern era of the newspaper the same experience meets us i n |

the great cholera epidemics, and i in our own times the terrible pre- J valence of consumption, in many, if not all, of the civilised countries of Europe and America, serves to show that, for some reason or other, the old tendency to epidemic disease is at least as strong in these days of science as it was in the times which we are apt to look upon as those of ignorance of the lsws of nature. The astonishing increase of cancer among peoples of European origin within the last twentylive ytars i* the latest, and one of the most serious, of the instances of epidemic disease which humanity has suffered from; and up to this time it has proved to be the rr.ost difficult to understand, and the hardest to combat. If such institutions a? that set on foot in London by the representatives of the late South African millionaire should naturally increase our knowledge, and suggest 1 a remedy for tne growing evil, European civilisation may yet have good cause to thank the t)ark Continent fo- having been, even indirectly, the means of throwing a much needed light upon a subject both daik and threatening.