THE GERM OF CANCER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1926, Page 7

THE GERM OF CANCER.

A SURGEON'S DOUBTS. GYE AND BARNARD'S CLAIM. GLASGOW EXPERT'S THEORY. (By Cable.—Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDOX, January 18. Sir George Beatson, surgeon of the Glasgow Cancer Hospital, doubts Dr. and Mr. J. E. Barnard's (the microscopist) claim that they discovered the cancer germ. He expresses.the opinion that photographs revealed, not a germ, but a synthetic creation due to XRays—an ultra-violet light playing on various materials used in photography. This was formerly invisible, but is now revealed by Mr. Barnard's apparatus. Sir George Beatson adds: "My own theory is that pigment in the human body excites cancer."—("Sun.")

Dr. William Ewart Gye and his colleague, Mr. J. E. Barnard, announced the isolation of what they believed to be the germ of cancer in July last. Dr. Gye is the son of a railway signalman, and was educated in village schools in Derbyshire. He became a teacher, but left this work to become a railway porter. He desired to be a doctor and studied in all his spare time, winning a scholarship at the University of Birmingham. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and has been practising for 13 years. He won the Gold Medal during his studentship. He served with great distinction in the war. The Medical Research Committeee invited him to join it and seek light in the terrible mystery of cancer. Mr. J. E. Barnard, a remarkably able microscopist (he is a hatter in the West End of London), and Dr. Gye went to work at Mill Hill, and it was here they claim to have found the cancer germ. Mr. Barnard is secretary of the Royal Microscopic Society, and both scientists have been honoured by the King.