CANCER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 12 October 1922, Page 2

CANCER

MOST URGENT PROBLEM CHILDIIEN AND SWEETS GREAT INJURY CAUSED Caiu'or is a disease, the ravages ol which have called fur investigation in die Dominion, and'it still remains one of (lie most important problems of medical research. As Dr W. It. Herbert remarked in his address on the “Prevention of Disease "at the lied Cross Rooms. Wellington, the cancer problem is undoubtedly one of the most urgent that, confronts the medical pro Cession to-day. Dr Herbert said that in England and Wales cancer haij, in 1920, for the first time in history, become the second, if not the first, cause of death. Until the. year 1892, ibis was an unenviable jUsilion enjoyed. by Australasia generally, and New Zealand in particular. Tbe position of cancer on tbe English list was duo to two causes,, firstly, a very considerable increase in the actual number of deaths from cancer itself, and secondly, to a pleasing decrease in the number of deaths from tuberculosis, which had. until recently, been looked upon as the white man's plague. But this was not so noticeable in the New Zealand list, where recent actual increase in the number of cancer deaths was the main cause. 'The cancer problem is undoubtedly me of the most urgent that confronts die medical profession to-day.” said Dr

Herbert. “There can be no doubt that | it Is rapidly on (he increase in all civi- ' iised countries, and the more k-ivilised,’ i the higher the incidence of cancer. Up I jto the present, the exact causation has ! ha filed scientific investigators, in spite of { the fact that perhaps more money is being spent on its investigation and the ; lest brains of scientific medicine are being employed on it. Although I grant I that until we find the exact causative j agent litis disease may baffle, our control. ! yet, I maintain, and have maintained j for years, that it is no reason why we ' should do nothing in this country in order to find out why the people of this, country are so frequently afflicted with this disease in certain parts of. the i body.” I If they were to eliminate cancer of 1 the alimentary canal, that is, mouth. . ! gullet, stomach, and bowels; they would ' 1 have done a great deal to reduce the , alarming mortality and suffering from ( ' tin’s disease. The whole problem was n[. j big one, for there could be little doubt l l Dint the causes which led to the marked j prevalence of such diseases ns gastric ] j and duodenal ulcer, appendicitis, intes- ( | Dual stasis, and marked constipation, ( . underlay o l ' predisposed to the causation ' jof cancer in those parts of the body, j i They knew that in the countries whore | thosfe so-called minor diseases were most ( common, and that gastric and duodenal , 1 I ulcer, appendicitis and cancer were un- j 1 known amongst the Jess civilised people, j They had that on the authority of so I distinguished a medical man as Colonel. . j MacCarrison, who during nine years’' work among the natives of the Hihia-'j lavas never saw a ease of any o f thb?d diseases. •

I NEW ZEALAND STATISTICS i WANTED

“It must be nearly 12 years ago. since I suggested to Die Public Health authorities Dint a special report should he furnished on every death occurring from cancer.” added Dr Herbert. “This would not be a. costly procedure, and I have xet to learn that the collective knowledge derived from a cartful analysis of so many deaths would not lead to some advance, or be of some assistance, in enabling us to get at our own peculiar ■%dts in New Zealand, which it is futile it) expect Die Cancer Research Society to do,- or nun body. For instance, 1 have been unable (o ascertain accurately the death rate from caiicor amongst Die Jews of this country, but from information kind!, supplied me from the Rabbis in the various centres, Ihun inclined to believe their death rale" is lower than that of Die rest of Die population. I am

quite wilting to concede that medical lit-! eratnre is not devoid of information on this subject, ol a most conflicting nature i from various parts of the world', but I ; would be thankful for definite infonna ! lion regarding New Zealand. One Rabin i informs me that in a large centre, during, h 0 years work in that, locality, he Jutsl known-of only tour deaths from cancer j amongst his parishioners. Another, in' an even larger centre, with a much larger proportion of members of the Jewish race, has, during the same period, i.e., forty years, records of only ten deaths.

■SOUND TEETH—GOOD lIEARTH Whet tier (lie causation of cancer be due directly, or indirectly, to dietetic errors 1 am not prepared to sav. but I am strongly of opinion that, the other conditions mentioned above are cerlainlv predisposed in this way. In ’this respect, lew things of more importance have engaged the attention of our health authorities recently than the care of (he teeth of children. It may be said quite 'definitely that it. is quite impossible to maintain alimentary good health in the presence ol bad or faulty dentition. Natives as a rule have good teeth, and are tree from these diseases. Of course, it must he granted that their dietary is often very different from ours, but an important point is that whatever their diet may be. liiev are abb' to deal with i it. ' I

"It is no exaggeration to describe the mouth as the doorway to good alimentary health. However, the great expenditure of public money in the direction,of curative denial work is only another instance of our blundering methods of deliberately creating disease, and then setting up costly and elaborate methods of combatting it. Let it not be inferred for one moment, that I belittle the value of the Dental Department of this country . Ihe work it is doing is of supreme value, hut what is the sense of spending all this money on curative work when we allow such an excessive consumption of sweets to our young people? We have been definitely told that this country | consumes more sugar per head than anv other country in the world, and we know for ’certain that this excessive consumption is the chief cause of dental caries and all the ill-health that it leads to.

“Work of very great importance Ims recently been done, showing the part played by dental, sepsis in Die causation of disease. Thus, patients suffering from ulceration of the bowels, stomach, and certain kidney diseases have been found, also, to be suffering from dental sepsis. The organisms in the,decayed teeth have been collected, cultivated, and injected into the veins of animals, and have produced in those animals exactly ' Die same ulceration of the bowels, stomach, and kidneys as Die patients suffered I rom. Dins showing a definite causative relationship. When one consider* how common these diseases are in New Zealand, how much suffering and economic loss they cause, it is difficult, in-

deed, to understand why the prime indirect cause of their production, mainly the excessive consumption of sweets, should be accessible to our children.—Post.