CANCER IS NOT HEREDITARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19910, 31 March 1928, Page 6 (Supplement)

CANCER IS NOT HEREDITARY.

Neither a father nor a mother can pass cancer 011 to the child, says a physician in a London daily. The investiga ion into thousands <>t human family histories and enormous numbers of animal experiments prove alike that cancer is not transmitted from parent to child. It appears from these researches that a tendency toward the complaint can be. and often is, transmitted, but that is the onlv sense in which cancer can be regarded as hereditary. There is no stigma attaching to cancer as used to be held. Cancer is a misfortune, not a fault. We know of no way of avoiding the immediate cause, except in the avoidance of chronic irritations to any part of the

[special to n.z. herald.— coryniGUT.] Wool embroidery will bo a feature of the new mode, especially on sports outfits. This suit, cut on almost Russian blouse lines, shows the geometric designs in many coloured wools on the blouse pocket and scarf ends.

body. These we know may occasion cancer, as is evidenced by the mule spinners' form of the disease arid the chimney sweeps'. .Research appears to teach that the causation of earner is two-fold. There must be the appropriate soil and there must be the activating cause.

An inherited disposition may supply tho first, and a chronic irritation the second. The inheritance may be unavoidable, but the second factor wo can eliminate by knowledge and care.