WANTED—NEW METHODS

Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 37

WANTED—NEW METHODS

Common Sense May Succeed Where the Microscope Fails in Gancer Research

by

H. W.

LEE

OR nearly thirty-eight years cancer-research workers have annually presented a report which may fairly be described as stereotyped. It has consisted of a candid admission of failure and a Micawher-like confidence that something will turn up in the near future. ‘Cancer is so appalling a scourge that relief from its’ menace would hardly be dearly purchased at the cost of all the wealth and treasure of the world. and every thinking person shrinks from writing or speaking 2 word likely to check the inflow of gifts to any group of qualified men deyoting their time, energy and skill ta discovering an effective method of combating it. The time, however, has surely arrived when those who supply the funds should have some say in deciding the Lines

upon which research work shall be conducted. A feeling is rapidly growing that orthodoxy not only regards its consistently unsuccessful method of research as a fetish or deity which it were sacrilege to question, but also contemptuously refuses to consider the suggestions Which many eminent medical men are convinced ure of importance and likely to yield considerable success, It is, indeed, a fairly well-known fact that doctors, as well as nature-curers, have, for a numher of years, used these suggested methods with remarkable results,

"THE protests of medical men and scientists-many of them world famous-- relieve the laity of the necessity of looking to nature-curers for guidance in its attitude toward cancer research as it has been conducted in the past, and will be in the future, if inatters are to be allowed to still drift. It is highly significant that cancer researchers are challenged by their inedical confreres, and that the latter propose methods of investigation and practice which have long been advocated by men and women who believe that Nature ever points the way. It is surely reasonable that suggestions by such men as Sir William Arbuthnot Lane, Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter, Dr. Leonard Williams, Dr. Woods Hutchinson, Dr. Edward Bach and Dr. Alexander Barton (to mention but a few of famous doctors who favour the methods of treatment now employed by Dr. Ulric Williams in New Zealand) should curry at least equal weight as those of the medics}

‘practitioners who at present direct cancer research work. 7 "LIGHT not yet seen," Professor Dodds declared at the Australian Cancer Conference in Sydney this year, and with unconscious humour a Christchurch doctor described the professor as the "highlight of the con ference." "More than four million pounds," Dr. J. E. Donagh, F.R.C.S., an eminent bacteriologist, reminds ns, "have been wasted upon cancer research when the nature of the couditions should, at all times, have been obvious, aud its prevention solely a matter of proper living." Professor Hastings Gilford, FVR.C.S., in the "Medical Press," Sept. 26. 1926. wrote: "Phis gigantic effort was

proved a ecompleie failure." He was particularly referring to the experiments on mice, rats, and other animals. In 1954 there were 50,022 experiments condueted in Eneand and Wales alone on these unfortunate, tortured — eréatures. In "The Lancet," of October 25, 1930, the same gentleman said: "After a quarter of a ceniury of research Wwe can see to what a deplorable waste of energy, ability and money this academic, aimjess toil may lead. One useful, if negative, induction, however, emerges-which is that the problem of the causation of human cancer is NOT to he

solved by experiments upon animals in laboratories," MH claim that treatment by radium has: proved a suecess is weakened rather than strengthened by the remarks of Dr. Cecil Rowntree at the annual meeting of the Royal Cancer Hospital in March of this year. "Dramatic advances," he solemnly told his audience, had been made in the treatment of cancer by surgical operation and the use of X-rays. "Cancer on the face, lips and skin generally was being cured with a certainty, simplicity aud safety never experienced previously." A similar state: ment was made last month by Dr. W. Gilmour in Auckland, who also appears to hold the sun’s rays partly respousible for the causation of cancer: if there were anything in this theory every man who works on our roads or in the fields world, fall ao sure victim to | (Coutinned on page 45),

JAN endeavour to establish the cause of, and find @ cure for, cancer has provided one of the most concentrated fields of scientific endeavour in the last two decades. There is, however, an influential, of unorthodox, school of scientific opinion which holds that it would be of far more practical value to mankind if the money spent on tracking ¢he elusive cancer-orgonismm were spent on educating people in rules of healthy living by observance of which the incidence of virtually all diseases, cancer included, could be minimised. This article by Mr. H. W. Lee, well-known Christchurch pioneer of the Naturopath movement in New Zealand, expresses succinctly one view of the cancer problem. a

New Methods Needed

eEeEi__ CANCER RESEARCH (Continued from page 37.) the disease. So, in order to encourage the public to believe that something has actually turned up of a hopeful character, it has been found necessary to diagnose every skin blemish as cancerous, and to urge sufferers to haye such eruptions treated at the earliest possible moment with radium or X-ray. LL skin "disease" is symptomatic of some trouble within the body, and is not the actual disease itself, and as orthodoxy has always concerned itself with effects rather than causes it is quite consistent in giving the advice above. But the fact remains that when radium or X-ray causes the "complete and speedy disappearance" of the skin trouble nothing whatever of a useful character hag been achieved, quite possibly the reverse, since the poisons of which it is merely the indicator, having . been denied a natural vent, may set up far more serious internal trouble. The claims made by these two gentlemen are distinctly amusing in face of the fact that Nature-curers have long ceased to marvel at the disappearance of skin troubles when treated with equal certainty, greater simplicity and far more safety, with lemon juice. I have myself known of a "leg-uleer" of twenty years’ standing entirely eured by applications of jJemon-juice and lemon poultices, conjoined with a by no means radical alteration in diet. A like result would probably follow applications of figs or onions in the form of poultices and the adoption of wise feeding. VW SILb simple, natural methods of treating disease seem to be ate tended by practically no risks, a similar claim cannot be made on behalf of operations, drugs, injections, radium or X-rays. Dr. Robert Bell, who was for many years in charge of cancer research in Battersea Hospital, London, told of fatal results from the use of radium: "Cases which had been under treatment elsewhere by radium seemed to be worse instead of better. "f fear,’ he continued, "that it is doomed to meet a like fate to that which has befallen X-rays, as far as cancer : concerned." Dr. George Starr-White, writing in July, 1935, described similar experiences. Dr. Anderschou stated that "radium applications had proved fatal in all the cases I have had the opportunity of observing, and the results of X-ray treatment have heen anything hut satisfactory." In one sentence Sir Arbuthnot Lane sums up the position as it appears to progressive members of his profession: ‘That the diseases of civilisation, from pyorrhoea {to cancer, are due to errors in diet is absolutely certain." Dr. Leonard Williams whimsically advises ecancer-researchers to "descend from their laboratories to the basemenr, where they would find at least one of the canses glowing in the kitchen and another hissing on the hob." "Neture." Dr. Ancersehou assires ns, "will perform the nature cure." Sir Bruce Bruce-Porter is convinced thai a fraction of the money expended in Chasing the elusive cancer-organism

would, if used in a real investigation of the food problem of our people, do more to check the spread of cancer than anything else."