NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13625, 19 December 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE FEAR OF SOCIALISM. We have no fear, remarks the London Spectator, of the world at large adopting socialism, though our anxiety is great lest Britain should lose her place in the world, and lose it for over, by the adoption of socialism. Depend upon it, the State will not long absorb all the sources of production, or be able to maintain for long a system under which the population are in the position of State serfs. Private property, even if overwhelmed for the moment, will reappear, though, it may well be, not accompanied by those popular rights and democratic institutions which are enjoyed along with it at the present time. Dr. Hodgson, the cloqueht author of "Italy and Her Invaders," in describing how in reality it was State socialism, and not the military prowess of the barbarians, which destroyed the Roman Empire, has pointed out that the British people may very soon be face to face with the situation which confronted the people of Rome " Will the great democracies of the twentieth century resist the temptation to use political power as a means of material selfenrichment? With a higher ideal of public duty than has been shown by some of the governing classes which preceded them, will they refrain from jobbing the commonwealth? Warned by the experience of. Rome, will they shrink from reproducing, directly or indirectly, the political heresy of Caius Gracchus, that he who votes in the Forum must be fed by the State? If they do, perhaps the world may see democracies as long-lived as the dynasties of Egypt or of China. If they do not, assuredly now as in the days of our Saxon forefathers it will be found that he who is a giver of bread is also lord." (Dr. Hodg- ! kin might have added i " And he that received the bread is a loafer.") "The old weary round will recommence, democracy leading to anarchy, and anarchy to despotism, and the national workshops of some future Gracchus will build the palaces in which British or American despots, as incapable of rule as Arcadius or Honarius, will guide mighty empires to ruin amidst the acclamations of flatterers as eloquent and as hollow as the courtly Claudian." This passage is as sound in thought as it iB eloquent in expression We may be perfectly sure that there will be no escape from the "old weary round" under which the social Revolution and the Terror give way to a Napoleon, unless we can make the democracy here realise that it is not to its true interests to follow the selfish example of other classes that/ have been endowed with political power, and, as Dr. Hodgkin says, to "job the commonwealth" under the name of State socialism or any other misleading alias. Our belief is that if the men of light and leading of all parties will deal honestly and openly with the British democracy, it may be made to realise the truth and to pause even at the

edge of the precipice. But there must be plain speaking and plain dealing. Any attempt to prevent the catastrophe by de-

scending half-way down the precipice is doomed to failure.

CANCER TREATMENT. What promises) to be an important discovery in electro-surgery 'lias been made (nays the Paris correspondent of the Daily Chronicle) by Dr. Keating Hart, of. Marseilles, who is now attending the Surgical Congress in Paris. It is the curing of cancer by means of electricity. The method itself is called fulguration, based on the Latin for lightning. The principle of electric treatment in the cure of cancer is not new, but the discovery of Dr. Hart, who uses' it as an auxiliary in conjunction with surgery, is distinctly new. , He read a paper on the subject before the congress, which evoked much interest, and passing from theory to practice, at an operation performed at the Broca Hospital for Women, gave a demonstration of the method of the new treatment. To begin with, Dr. Hart treats cancer by ordinary surgical means, utilising fulgumtion as a valuable healing agent. Prior to the first incision, and while the patient is under an anesthetic, he directs upon the cancerous growth, and by means of an apparatus of enormous voltage,, a high-tension high-frequency electrical spark. Again, after the operation has been carried out, the diseased part removed, and the vessels ligatured, the electric spark is again applied. Under its influence the diseased tissues soften, the pain which arose from the disease disappears, and the surgical wound heals rapidly. In cases already treated by this method the malignant growth was completely eradicated, and there has been no recrudescence but perhaps the most remarkable results were obtained where, owing to the position of the disease, it lias been found impossible to operate. For example, at Marseilles a woman of 50 was suffering from cancer in the head, in the region of the frontal bone. Operation was out of the question, so treatment by fuiguration was tried. After the first application the attendant pain ceased entirely. Healing of the diseased tissues followed successive applications of electricity, and in three months the growth had completely disappeared. The recent operations at the Broca Hospital were witnessed by many leading surgeons, including Professor Pozzi, Drs. Oudin and Loewy (of Paris), Waddell (of Sydney), and Greville (of London). The surgeons present were very much impressed.