The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, OCT. 26, 1907. THE CANCER SCOURGE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2221, 26 October 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING SATURDAY, OCT. 26, 1907. THE CANCER SCOURGE.

Of all human ills scarcely any is so dreaded by men and women in all classes of society as the disease known as cancer. Aledic.il skill and'

scientific research have made wonderful progress in the last decade, and many ailments that formerly took heavy toll of human life, and were looked upon as incurable, are now robbed of their chief terrors. Improved sanitation and better knowledge of the laws governing health have reduced the danger of such epidemics as small-pox, bubonic plague, etc., to a minimum, whilst diphtheria, which only a brief period ago was looked upon as beyond . human remedy, is now recognised as easily curable, and even tuberculosis does not present insuperable difficulties if taken in hand before it reaches an advanced stage. Despite this progress it is a regrettable fact that one of the most malignant of all, c nicer, still baffles the skill of the leading doctors in tlio ■ world to-day. Under the circumstances it is interesting to note that the sanitary authorities in Paris lmyo under observation a large number of houses where cases of cancer liavo occurred, with -a view to ascertaining, beyond doubt, whether or not houses become 'infected with the terrible disease. They have been induced to do so by some remarkable evidence collected

by doctors. “The strange coincidence lias often been observed and pointed out by practitioners, even so far back as twenty and thirty years ago (writes tile London “Daily Telegraph’s” correspondent). A patient dies of cancer in a certain house. A year afterwards, or even longer, other persons como to live in (the same house, and suddenly some member of the family is afflicted with the terrible disease. For veal's and years the same phenomenon recurs. One family removes after one or more of its members has succumbed to the illness, others succeed them, and become in turn viotims of the same f.lital affection.” In a French village of 400 inhabitants, there were eleven deaths from cancer in seven years, nearly all in the same block of houses, which adjoined a. small brook. Three years later there were twenty-one cases in seventeen of these houses. In a certain 'farmhouse five people died from cancer in thirty years. In another house a person died of cancer and the family moved out. Two years later one of the new occupant:; contracted the disease and died. A third fam-

ily took the house, and two women lied of cancer. A fourth family lived there for four years, when it lost one of its members from the same cause. Six months after the fifth family left the house, the mother had cancer of the tongue. Two more families occupied the house, and the father of the first died, and the mother of the second was operated on. The house remained unoccupied for 18 months, ami then an eighth family entered, and soon after lost one of its number from cancer. At this point the house was luckily burned down. iSimikir eases are cited, and some doctors are asking whether the supposed eases of hereditary cancer might not be attributed to this cause. At any rate, interesting results are expected fuen tho observation of 1061 houses — those in which cancer patients died in the last six months of 1906. It has already been observed that in twelve houses two successive cases occurred. If tho investigation should prove beyond doubt- that cancer is transmissible in the same way as is tuberculosis, very valuable, information will have been gained, and

scientists will be enabled to ro-coin-menco investigations from a point that may bring the result for which they have been striving for so many years.