QUACKS AND CANCER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 130, 4 June 1931, Page 4

QUACKS AND CANCER

QUICK ACTION ESSENTIAL A warning against "cancel' curcrs" and. "ignorant and pretentious quacks" was sounded1 by Lord JVToym-■ lian,'^prcsiilbiLt.--6E .the Royal College of Surgeons of Kiigiand, who, in a radio iiddross broadcast from Leeds, Yorkshire/over tlio Culuinbiii ucUvork, spoke on "Tim Fnturc of- Surgery," says the "JS'ow York Times." Discussing; the modern treatment of cancer, Lord Moynihan urged -early. coiisultation, saying the only fear of tho patient should be.'thb fear of. delay. Quoting statistics recently issued by the British Ministry of Health, Lord Moynilian pointed out that, in cases of cancer of the breast it was found that when tho. operation was performed in the early.stages.of the disease, 90.1 per cent.' of the patients wore alive and well ten years-after operation, whereas if the.disease wits1 advanced, 94.4 per cent, were dead within the same .period; LOCAL" AT FIEST. "It. is true to say,'' declared Lord Moynihan, "that every singlo case of cancer wheto tho disease is : accessible to the surgeon is curable in tho early stago,; for cancer is at first always a local disease. It scorns to me, therofore, .quite obvious that the future success of surgery very largely depends upon the education of tho public in theso matters and of a clear and convinced recognition of the fact that their only four should be. tho fear of delay. "I may 'perhaps be. allowed to give ■one word of advice It is to avoid quackery tviul •to .sm?k at tho earliest njoinoitfc tlift counsel of a medical nwu. It is stilt true, as Bacon asserted three centuries ago, that the weakness iiufi-' credulity of men in such tha.t they will often prefer a mountebank or a witch ■to a physician. Unhappily it is notvery •infrequent for delay in- all cases of. illness to be encouraged by the wasteful trial of-other methods. Tho caucer curer, i'or example, is still a curse in every land, and the most pathetic credulity as to his claim is shown by people who slioiild know better." Lord 'Moyfiiliau tlicn reviewed the' art of; surgery from the days of prehistoric man. .' NEW EEA AT HAND. ."■We are now-entering upon a new era,'.' ho declared., "The futuro of surgery must : concern itself not only with mbchanical measures for the repair of mechanical defects, but it will seek also to deal with the disorders of func-tion-in organs and will base itself upon a knowledge of physiology, the science of normal function. We are entering the era of physiological repair by the craft of surgery." The doctor-of-to-day, he continued, must regard his . problem as one of diagnosis as well as therapeutics. The patient is regarded as a case for scrupulous investigation, not only by ordinary methods of clinical inquiry but also by the; methods, of the radiologist, the chemist, and tho dentist. "The future, of surgery," he concluded, "depends therefore not so much upon any-advance in craftsmanship, for . that is_ .hardly possible, but in the making and cementing of alliances with all auxiliary sciences, with physics, with chemistry,. bacteriology, and perhaps .above, all with, the scieneo too much neglected -to-tlay, the science of biology^'lt; tlopcnds^iii:'a large measure also -upon the • enlightenment ■ and the sympathetic"''understanding' of the public and upon their seeking advice iv the early curable stages of disease rather than, as is now far too often the case, iv the Into neglected and incurable stages."