FACTS ABOUT CANCER.

Evening Star, Issue 14633, 1 August 1911, Page 4

FACTS ABOUT CANCER.

In ‘ London ’ for May Mr Hugh H. Riddle set-s out some of the facts that the Imperial Cancer Research Fund has ascertained in its laboratories in Savoy street since its work began in ISO2. The investigators arc conducting their researches on an army of mice. They ear ; —“The cancer engrafted in this mouse will fail to develop and lie will throw off the disease, because we immunised him before the living cancer cells were implanted in his tissues. In artificially engrafted cancer, at any rale, the previous injection of normal mouseblood or normal mouse-tissue —e.g., skin, spleen, etc.—into the mouse to he inoculated has the result of rendering his tissues practically immune against cancer growth.”

--Not Contagious.— Tho investigators claim u> have proved that the, career problem is dissimilar in every way from any known germ-earned infectious disease. A cancerous tumor contains no virus or germ foreign to t!i.> normal living tissue. They have also proved that cancer is not contagious, that "cantor houses’ - are a myth. The disease is practically never passed on from one individual to another. —Not Hereditary.—

Tlio investigators have also laid the dread spectre of the alleged hereditary character of the disease. The danger of a man inheriting a general constitution liable to the disease, is infinitesmal. What are described ae certain comforting statistics collected by the investigators absolutely dispose of the recent widespread belief that cancer is limited to civilised whits men. and that increasing luxury leads directly to its development. —Not Increasing.—

There are over 50.000 victims a year in Japan ; in India, even including vegetarian castes, all the evidence points to there being as much disease an hero. Numerous cases have been recorded ain on get savage people. It is also shown that cancer is not on the increase. —Proved Causes,—

Evidence, said to be decisive, is laid to prove that chronic irritation of Jiving tissues, such as by the rubbing or pressure of a foreign body, or by the action of heat or of chemicals, plays an important part in cancer formation. So cancer is common in tho abdominal skin of the natives of Cashmere, who commonly carry over tlieir stomachs a little oven containing burning charcoal. Experiments on mice have further shown that profound relief may be confidently hoped lor if an operation is undertaken in time. All these conclusions, of course, rest on the assumption that what holds good of mice holds good of men.

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