Medical Research.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17544, 28 August 1922, Page 6

Medical Research.

The Bill just introduced into the American Houao of Representatives, whioh. offers u priae of a million dollars, paid by annual instalments, to anyone discovering a "successful cure" for tuberculosis, cancer, epilepsy and several other diseases, is an instance of doing the right thing in the wrong way. What is needed is to endow tho work, not tho worker; to provide funds for the unceasing investigation of the diseases referred to and all possible cures, not to offer a fortune to any investigator who happened to bo successful in finding a cure lor any one of them. Medical men nro doing now work of that nature in vnrlutw parts of tho world, with no irion of personal gain in their mind*. Tlitiir numbers would be incroa«>d no doubt, if they could bo afforded noitm (Inuiiriul assistance during llio ,vm t ih npuiit in tho hospitals and llio liil.oihlui,) , 'studying from ov«ry tumlablo .'a/ipoi'l llm iliscasu

which they have chosen for their subject. and searching with infinite care tor some remedy which would destroy at least one of mankind's enemies. Thi3 question came into some little prominence, a few weeks ago, at Home, where several splendidly munificent gifts nave lately been made to advance cancer research. These donations were, apparently, the cause of considerable correspondence on cancer being published in a London paper. To this correspondence, as a medical authority subsequently remarked, practically no one having expert knowledge of the subject contributed his views; most of the writers seem to have been of the class who attribute the spread of cancer to tea-drinking, nervousness, cooking by gas, and so on, and indulge in all the nonsensical theories that have supplanted the popular belief that there was a close connexion between tomatoes and cancer. The publication of all this rubbish led the medical contributor of the London

'• Observer" to point out that "the one '•great outstanding fact, beyond aues- '; tion, is that, whatever the causa- " tion of cancer, the vast majority of " eases are now curable if seen in time, "as scarcelv any are. This deplorable "state of things will never be cor- " rected until (a) the public knows the "danger signs; and (b) is brave "enough to consult a doctor directly " these signs appear." Some effort is being made to enlighten the public as to danger signs, and reference is made to admirable leaflets, dealing with this aspect of the matter, issued by the Health Departments of Portsmouth and Leicester respectively, while the Cancer Research Fund in Ireland was carrying on—its activities are probably now suspended—extensive propaganda with tho same end in view. With regard to the assistance recently given to cancer research, it seems that, welcome though it is, the money might bo spent, more usefully. Various sums have been allocated to different places in differing proportions, but in each placo the work of investigation goes on in water-tight compartments, no worker in one place knowing what is being done in the next. "Time, money, "and labour and hosts of lives are "lost," asserts the "Observer" writer, "because, to take London alone, wo " have the Imperial Cancer Research "Fund, the Middlesex Hospital, the "Cancer Hospital, and other places all "doing what is, in effect, inco-ordin- " ated, if not competitive, research. " Even at three hospitals lately visited "for the study of the new X-ray " therapy, none knew what the others " were doing. If mankind were not "mostly fools," he adds, "wo should "have had an International Research " Institute long ago, where money was "no object, and clinicians, microscop"ists, bacteriologists, radiologists, bio- " chemists, statisticians, cytologists, " and others, under a small directorate "of master-minds, would have solvea "the problem ere now." That is the direction in which tho American House of Representatives, if it has a million dollars to spare, should spend the money. But there is something in the idea of offering that amount as a prize which, no doubt, appeals to the Congressman's mind.