ANTI-CANCER CAMPAIGN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19280, 19 March 1926, Page 16

ANTI-CANCER CAMPAIGN

CAUSES OF TH£ SCOURGE.

DR. GYE'S INVESTIGATIONS

RESEARCH COUNCIL'S REPORT

Cancer, and the work done in Britain by Dr. Oye and Mr. Barnard, constitute the most' interesting section of the report published in January l,y cal Research Council for the year Introducing the researches of Dr. bye and Mr. Barnard, the report poiwts out that it lias been known for a qiu.trfer of a century that some and perhaps many of the microbes undeniably responsible in a casual sense for definite and grave

diseases in man and other animals are in themselves completely non-virdent. Thus the bacilli of tetanus or their spores if washed and implanted alone in the body cause no ill-effects. Similarly the microbes invariably _ associated with "gas" srangrene are by themselves quite harmless. These two diseases were studied during the war by Dr. Gye and Dr. Cramer, who found that a minute quantity of calcium enabled the otherwise harmless bacillus to act with full virulence.

Dr. Gye and Dr. Kettle also showed that the tubercle bacillus became infinitely more infectious when associated with silica. Dr. Gye, it is pointed out, has now provided experimental proof that the opinion put forward by Dr. Peyton Rous, of the Rockfeller Institute in 1911, that a malignant tumour can be caused by a fil-ter-passing organism, is true, and they show how Mr. Barnard has made it possible to demonstrate its presence, pointing out also the need of a chemical facif the disease is to be developed.

The Parados o! Medicine. The council draws attention to what it describes as the great parados of medicine. Those considering cancer from the clinical point o£ view were inclined generally to believe that some common causative factor must exist to link up the tumours of man and other animals, while those who riJsted 011 the experimental findings, such as that it was impossible to transplant a mouse tumour into an animal other than a mouse, tended to r* ject such a belief. Dr. Gve, it is shown, has resolved this parados by proving that the microbe responsible is itself harmless, while it is the other factor that enables the microbe to become virulent, this factor differing with different species. In this way the cancer problem is definitely linked up with the problem of other diseases, snch as tetanus, "gas" gangrene, consumption, etc.

In connection with the wide range covered by tho researches, attention is drawn to "an interesting chance observation made during the year" when a wild fox voluntarily visited the Mill Hill Farm and was found. in an open field to be sick and jaundiced. This observation made it possible to link up the serious form of jaundice which has recently infected miners with not only the same infection that is known to occur in rats, but also with a form of the same disease met with in domestic dbgs and often confused with distemper.

In discussing the work of the department of applied optics the council not only reports on the special instrument devised by Mr. Barnard in connection with filter-passing organisms generally and with cancer in particular, but announces that as a result of the experience gained a new microscope is at present under construction embodying additional improvements.

Incidence of Cancer. Cancer enters into the work of the Statistical Department of the council, but it has not been found that any trade not already recognised as specially associated with the occurrence of cancer has an exceptionally severe cancer deathrate, though several trades have been shown to have a cancer death-rate in excess of that found in the general population. On the whole cancer incidence is higher in people of low status, though in tiie casa of certain organs, namely the bowel, pancreas, and prostate, the disease is relatively more common in people of high social status. The question of cancer areas has also beer investigated, and the conclusion has been reached that "some relationship to soil'seems to exist, but the physical features of land cannot be connected with the variations in incidence discovered." Work in the same department carried out in the Roman Catholic and non-Catholic provinces of Ireland show that tho influence of the religious factor is not so important as is generally believed. Professor Leacock to Assist. A message from Toronto published in London, saj's that it is stated that Professor Stephen Leacock, the well-known author and humorist, has determined to devote his fortune and his pen henceforth to the promotion of a strenuous campaign for the cure and prevention of cancer. It is understood that the British Society for the Control of Cancer will be the medium through which Professor Leacock will direct his efforts. Professor Leacock's resolve is said to be duo to the recent death in England of his wife, after the unsuccessful administration of Professor P.lair Boll's lead solution treatment for cancer.