Our Cancer Patients

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 17, 23 April 1903, Page 1

Our Cancer Patients

Two and a half centuries ago, when Bernini made his famous statue of the Nile in Kome, he represented it as a human figure With its head concealed by the fold of a mantle. For at that time, and till far on in our own day, the head or source of Egypt's wealth-bearing rivethad not yet been discovered. If some grotesque sculptor of our time were to personify cancer, he might aptly treat his subject as Bernini treated the Nile. For the source or origin of cancer still remains one of the unread riddles of medical science. Leprosy is a medical mystery, but (to use ' the genial showman's ' term) cancer is ' mysterior.' Dr, Fell, a. well-known New Zealand practitioner, has expressed the opinion that cancer is a disease of comparatively modern growth. No mention is made of it in the Bible. Hippocrates wrote four centuries before the Christian era. He was the most famous physician of that far-off time, and described many a human ill of his day ; but he is silent about cancer, and Jf it existed at all at that remote period, it must have been comparatively rare. Dr. Snow, the English physician who has made cancer his subject, says, in an article before üb, that it is rot hereditary, but is due to ' the increased Btreas of our modern lite.' And he adds that "* uatil society emerges into some calmer sea,' ' a progressive lncreas* of cancer, duly proportioned to the growing severity of the struggle for existence, may be predicted as a matter of course.' * Whatever may bt the value of Dr. Snow's theory as to the causation of cancer, there can bo no doubt about the menacing rapidity of the spread of that fearful malady. Tuberculosis is the over-king of all the ilia that flesh is heir too. Cancer comes next to it as a slayer of our kind. In New Zealand, the deaths from this noisome parasitical disease rose steadily from 307 in 1892 to 515 in 1901. This represents an increase during that period, from 4.78 to 6.62 deaths per 10,000 persons in the population, and from 4.75 to 6.75 per cent, of the total deaths in the Colony, In the British leles the proportion of deaths from this dread scourge is even greater. A report recently published by the Registrar-General shows that cancer 1b steadily increasiag in every country in the United Kingdom. In Ireland, in 186i — th« first ,y ear in which the registration system was in force— the rate was 2.7 per 10,000 living. In 1871 it had risen to 3.3, in 1881 to 3.7, in 1891 to 4. ft, and in 1901 it reached 6.8. In England (including Wales) in 1864 th« rat* was 3.9, in 1871 it was 4.3, in 3 881 5.2, in 1891 6.9, and in 1900 it had risen to 8.8. In Scotland in 1864 the rate was 4.8, in 1871 it was 4.4, in 1881 5.2, in 1891 6.8, and 1900 8.0.

In reviewing the detailed figures presented in his report, the Kegistrar-General draws attention to certaitt main facts which they disclose— facts which, however. serve only, in a way, to emphasise the strange and painful mystery that still surrounds this fell disease. Here are the points to which the Kegistrar-General directs attention :—: — ' 1. That in many cases cancer occurs in the same family, grand-parents, parents, and other relatives of the person affected having suffered from that disease. ' 2. That frequently, where the member of a family is afflicted with cancer, other members of the family suffer from tuberculosis. ' 3. That in a number of instances where members of a family are afflicted with cancer, other members of the family sufTer from lunacy, idiocy, and epilepsy. ' 4. That in some cases the disease has occurred ia persons who have been in direct contact with cancer patients. ' 5. That the disease has manifested itself in individuals who have used the tobacco pipes of persons suffering from cancer of the lip. '6. That in some instances more than one case of cancer has occurred among different families living in th« same house, or among successive pecuponts pj the same house. 7. That in a lew cases the disease has appearet} in different houses in the samt locality about the same time.'