WAR AGAINST CANCER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 13

WAR AGAINST CANCER.

BRITISH INVESTIGATIONS.

MANY! ALLEGED CURES.

EXTRAORDINARY EXAMPLES

[PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] LONDON, Oct. 19. At a meeting of the Royal Institute of Publio Health this 'week Dr. Alfred Greenwood, Medical Officer of ■* Health for Kent, read a paper on " Cancer and the Imperial Cancer Campaign." In view of some remarks made by the leoturer one could not help comparing the publicity methods ol Great- Britain with those of the United States. In , the States, it seems, they have organised propaganda work on a large scale. In 1913 they had a " Cancer Week " when the whole populace were almost forced to take an interest in the subject through the agency of the press, leaflets, ' and lectures, and every minister preached on the subject on the Sunday. In 1920 a similar propaganda week took place and it was estimated that during that week 10,000,000 people had been taught. the elementary principles regarding the signs and symptoms of cancer. 'Sow necessary it is that the. public should know these facta was instanced by the chairman of the .meeting, Dr. Lockhart Mummery, who said 'that in the hospital to which he was attached 83 per cent, of those who came for treatment for cancer were quite beyond the stage to be operated upon. This left only 17 per cent, whom they had a chance of curing. Dr. Mummery, who is chairman of the Executive Council of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, explained that they had taken, up the attitude that it was worth while examining every alleged oure of cancer, whether it came from the layman or from "the medical profession. , The result had been that be had received, as chairman of the council, communications from every part of the world. There was * the religious enthusiast who wrote that it was simply absurd to attempt to euro cancer as it was merely the judgment of God for the sins of the pass. One man in New Zealand wrote to say that all that it was necessary to know about cancer was to be found in a certain verso in the Book of Revelation. An American was quite certain he had the cure and hastened over to London bearing photographs of people who had cured Slowing them (before and after treatment. Dr. Mummery went carefully through some fifteen photographs and selected three. "Why do you select those three," said the visitor, " those are the only three we have been able to do nothing with." " Yes," replied Dr. Mummery, " they are the only three cases of cancer you have been dealing with." Again from Now Zealand he had received a "cure" from a perfectly genuine 'altruist. He desired nothing for himself* He wished to give the world the benefit of his discovery. This was ■ ioz. of quicksilver, with 2oz. of sulphur mixed with a pint of molasses for internal application. He had evidently cured cases with incredible celerity—in ona ease, the disease had covered the face. As cancer on the face was so rare as to be almost non-existent, it was evident that he had cured a syphilitic lesion, and with such a mixture h« well might. Other people had inherited pots of medicine from the distant past and submitted them' for analysis. One man had had a dream and gave the council the benefit of it. He had dreamed that a cure for cancer was to eat black slugs on an empty sumach for a week, and this information he forwarded in a registered letter. No one had been found yet to try the cure.