CAUSATION UNKNOWN

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 81, 3 October 1923, Page 9

CAUSATION UNKNOWN

BUT EARLY TREATMENT IS

SURE

DON'T DELAY—DON'T WAIT FOR

PAIN

Health Week has already developed into a popular success, and the Tadium movement seems to be progressing parallel with it.

The second evening of Health Week brought to the Town Hall last evening an audience that could not have numbered far short of a thousand. It was "radium evening." j\lr. F. Castle, chairman of the Wellington Hospital Board, presided. He emphasised the value of preventive medicine, and also of treatment for such diseases as cancer, the cause of which was little known, but which was responsible for nearly 10 per cent, of deaths in New Zealand. A strong case existed for installing a radium outfit in each of the hospitals in the four centres of New Zealand. As the use of radium emanations diminished with time, four installations seemed to be preferable to a central installation. A radium installation would cost about £20,000. He waa told that a Christchurch citizen had already promised £500 to a Christchurch installation, and he hoped that Wellington citizens would not be behindhand in responding to an appeal probably to be made in a few days. ADDRESS BY DR. HERBERT. Dr. Herbert, in an address on "Cancer," referred to the search for the "elusive cause" of cancer, and the foolishness of waiting till the specific cause was discovered. Treatment must proceed 'in the light of available knowledge. He believed there was a cancer control league in every State of the United States, carrying on a great propaganda. Large centres in America not only had a Health Week, but a Cancer Week. Since 1875 in New Zealand the death rate from tuberculosis | had steadily fallen, and the cancer rate j had steadily risen. In 1911 for 'the ! first time the cancer death rate exceedied the tuberculosis death rate—a thing that happened in few countries in the world. The fight against tuberculosis had been helped by knowledge of its cause, and by preventive medicine. They did not know cancer's cause, but treatment must not halt while they were proU. ing causation. Contrary to common

0 BE CLEAN. <i) © Dirt means danger. Cleanli- § # ness is a great preventive © against disease. © Soap and running water plus *? S "elbow grease" are great germ s X killers. <1 |> Always wash the hands before ||) |) handling food. Our hands are & § germ carriers. ' © @ Keep your home free from flies. (3 (2[ The amount of disease carried by <~| ' <S flies, is tremendous. @ 0. Your rubbish tin is a favourite s \ V feeding place ; and sometimes |s ■ Jjj) breeding place for flies and other k '@> germ carriers. Keep it covered. i§ Keep your drains clean. Disin- <§) {t> feet them often. . Don't let chil- <§ . dren play near them. S S Cleanliness is a Lite .(| &', Preserver. <g)

idea, scancer never .started with Dam. It was in the first place a small localised, curable disease, but it needed early treatment, and there was no pain to warn the patient. Cancer was not a disease of old age. An eighteen-year-old boy 'had died, arid deaths under thirty of age, were not infrequent in New; Zealand. A great deal of the trouble \ might be due to the ever-in-creasing') devitalisation caused by the demands of modern civilisation's false values aiid unnecessary mode of living. AbundanV fresh air was needed for the endocrine i development that was necessary for healthy physical and mental growth. . '. There were glandular secretions necessary .to such growth. Of 1044 cancel' deaths in New Zealand in 1921, 795 were due to cancer occurring in two way;s—in the alimentary canal (619), ; and in women (176). Neglected irritations wire a predisposing cause to cancer, such -as tooth irritation of the tongue and mouth. Cutting by teeth was not the onVy. cause of trouble; tooth sepsis, giving rise sometimes to gastric ulcer, was another. Tooth sepsis, from a human gastric ulcer case, if injected into an animal, caused the appearance of gastric ulcer im the animal. Chronic ulceration of the.stomach was a predisposing influence towards cancer. Indigestion was not as disease, but a symptom—a symptom qf many diseases. Be enumerated about \ fifteen. Fallacious terminology, suggesting that indigestion was a disease, wae misleading, and should be altered. S There were many signs tending to show that all wag not well with the intestinal tract, and such signs were frequently misread as indi--1 eating piles or other mistaken cause. More care should be given to food. More fruit should be eaten. ': There should be a wide knowledge of food values. Fruit eating should be taught vto the young almost as a ritual. The over-refining of food was bad for healtiy Oatmeal was good, its refinements generally were not. Women should give early treatment to lumps in breast. Such lumps were generally not malignant, but needed treatment. He did not agree, with the view of certain eminent authorities that dietary had nothing to, do with the cause of cancer. He believed that it was a predisposing, if not an\ exciting cause. . \ c

DR. CAMERON ON RADiUM.

. Dr. P. D. Cameron, of DunedinL speaking on "Radium in the Treatment of Cancer/ said: "Although I have had radium in my possession for pie last thirteen years, I have only oncolhad an opportunity of examining it af, close quarters, and that was on the occasion of the accidental breakage of a tube containing radium bromide. The br\omide is an inoffensive-looking yellow po\vder, and to the eye presents no hint af Tts wonderful properties. Professor \Becquerel, of Paris, found out one of its properties by carrying a tube of radium in his pocket, although he was warned not to do so. This action produced .in fifteen days a redness of his skin, followed later by an ulcer, which took a month to heal. This pointed the way to using' radium in the treatment of skin diseases, and is partly the reason I have not brought along any of my radium needles' or applicators this evening. They are , very small, very expensive, and rather dangerous to handle for any length of time. Not danjrerous to the patient who .'eceives a carefui'y-calculated dose and no more, but they are to the user, who, | in spite of taking precaution*, cannot i

avoid a certain amount of radiation every time he handles them. "Radium bromide, then, is a harmlesslooking yellow powder, and yet it is constantly giving off a series of invisible rays, and a gas. The amount of energy given off by this ordinary-looking powder is more than one million times that from a like amount of any other energyproducing substance. If I mention petrol and dynamite, the matter will be clear to you.

Either the powder enclosed in a suitable applicator, or the gas, may be used in the treatment of disease. The gas drawn off from a soluble radium salt, such as radium bromide in solution, may be collected in glass applicators of varying size and shape. ."This tiny glass bulb, the size of a pin s head, given to me by Dr Howard Kelly, of Baltimore, has contained 1100 millicuries of emanation, a quantity of gas equivalent in power to radium valued

I DR. TRUBY KING'S VIEWS. | @ "The starchy food of white 0 bread is not of the same value as <§ <| the food of brown or wholemeal © |j bread. It is strange that we © §■' should give away in the form of § |j bran or pollard, to the lower <| <| animals, the very foods that we <| U require ourselves. The more our @ \ foods are elaborated, the less use- @ k ful they become to us. We must @ k get back to more primitive foods, <? <I The More Virile We Will Be." t

at £18,700, which is a larger quantity of radium than it is proposed to provide for the city of Wellington. This gives a striking illustration of one of the properties of radium • it is constantly giving off thiß gas which possesses the properties of radium itself, and which can be confined and compressed into a very small space indeed. Dr. Howard Kelly has the largest quantity of radium in private use, 4i grammes, valued at over £76,000, and there aro few if any public institutions that have more. He is naturally one of the best authorities on this subject, and an ardent -advocate of its efficiency. The brilliant results Dr. Kelly and his associate, Dr. Burnham, wore obtaining in Baltimore so much impressed me, that after spending some time at the radium institutes in London and Manchester, I returned to the United States and made a special point of revisiting Baltimore, in addition to various radium centres, including the Memorial Hospital in New York, and the Mayo Clinic at Rochester. "This experience showed me that in addition to radium, radium emanation was undoubtedly required, and I went to considerable trouble to find out all the details of its preparation, including even the siza of. flame required in sealing off minute capillary emanation tubes. "In Dunedin during the year 1922 I treated 187 patients. Details of. these and of other cases have been published in the 'New Zealand Medical Journal,' and the results are sufficiently striking to show that radium has become a necessity in the euro and alleviation of many diseases. These _ include various forms of cancer, especially skin cancers, sarcoma, 'various blood diseases, many skin diseases, including tubercle, birth marks, and warts. The results I have obtained this year in Dunedin, and later since my arrival in Wellington, promise to be equally satisfactory. "I will tell you about three cases, and finish. The first is the earliest cui-ed case I can trace in my personal records —a man who suffered from an early rodent ulcer, which after treatment subsided, and has remained cured- to this day. That was twelve years ago. The next is a man in whose case an operation for the removal of a large growth had to be abandoned on- account of its extent. He received one radium treatment, and was cured in four weeks'- time, and has remained in good health for the last nine years.

"The last case is that of a child from Wellington, then aged 18 months. This child had two operations, followed by re-growth in each case. She was then treated with radium with complete success. This was seven years ago." Both lecturers were received with: applause, and had enthusiastic hearers.

HOW TO KEEP FIT.

Nothing could be more appropriate to Health Week, and at the same time more entertaining, than the V.M.C.A. exercises with which Mr. J. A. Duffy, the V.M.C.A. physical director, illustrated his address on "How to Get Fit and How to Keep Fit.!' In the first place, a male pupil of Mr. Duffy performed a five minutes table of exercises, and, in the second place, a lady pupil similarly demonstrated. Mr. Duffy said that these were exercises that could be performed in the privacy of one's own bedroom. They would exercise every muscle in the body, and, if performed as demonstrated, would be sufficient to keep one fairly fit.

Mr. Duffy exhorted his hearers to pay strict attention to the laws of Nature. Moderation in eating arid; drinking, personal cleanliness, 1 daily exercises, sleep, recreation, attention to bowels. He stressed the importance of swimming as being the best exercise known. Sunbathing was recommended, but, above all, systematic exercise, and preferably exercise taken with others, as the associations and' team spirit were a great help in keeping people interested in physical work. "At least 40 per cent, of children (added Mr. Duffy) suffer from affected respiratory organs,, such as adenoids and swollen tonsils. In how

# WEAR SUITABLE CLOTHING. 1 # We wear clothing to keep our § bodies protected from sudden <? that occur in the ter- <t !j perature. <§> Ji) Underclothes are the most im- %• |j portant of our clothing. . , <| Given suitable underclothing, % 0 outer clothes are. a. matter of g) ffl taste. • . >j <| Don't "coddle" yourself with 1 "chest protectors," "throat muf- <p |j flers," "stomach bands," etc. @ 5 Clothing should not be tight s? |J fitting. <? <| . The less clothing you can wear % and be comfortable, the healthier 1 you will be. (S 1 Good Health ig Good % 6 Citizenship. • J|

many cases is this due to the ignorance of parents? We know more about sheep and horses than we do about the human body. There is an idea abroad that only the poor and uneducated are lacking in knowledge of hygiene and other matters pertaining to health. Such is not my experience; for the children of many of the well-to-do are just as carelessly trained." In addition to the solo performers mentioned above, squads of six ladies, twelve girls, some nlen, and half a dozen boys went through a most interesting and loudly-applauded series of exercises and acrobacy. The six ladies, with illuminated clubs, spun circles of fire in a darkened hall. But the prettiest performance was that of f^he twelve girls, attired as six girls in ccold and six boys in purple. The gulden girls and th« purple bovg had

bells on their ankles, and moved in musical harmony with a capable accompanist on tho piano. The statuary work of the men, as pderrote, was much applauded. Health Week is fortunate in having such helpers. Votes of thanks to the lecturers, to the V.M.C.A., and to all who helped concluded the proceedings.

To help Health Week, the Bristol Piano Company has lent the grand piano, free of charge, for the week, and the Scoullar Co. is making no charge for stage decoration.