THE CANCER CAMPAIGN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20365, 20 September 1929, Page 13

THE CANCER CAMPAIGN.

DOCTOR AND HIS MICE.

THOUSANDS IN LABORATORY.

IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS.

[irilOM OUR OWN CORUESBPNDENT.]

SYDNEY, Sept. 12.

An unobtrusivo but remarkable little man at the recent Medical Congress was Dr. Thomas Cherry, of Melbourne, who loves mice, for cancer experimental purposes, just as much as the average person, and every cat and dog worthy of the namo, hates them. Dr. Cherry, a little man physically, but one of Australia's biggest men in the war on cancer, speaks almost with affection, in a purely scientific way, of course, of the thousand mice which he maintains in his laboratory. How be caught them the doctor does not say. Of these 1000 mice he has inoculated 'SOO.

Dr. Cherry brought to Sydney from Melbourne, for the purpose of the con- I gress, a special selection of eight of these infected. mice, which attracted as much attention as some of the gruesomelooking exhibits in the Uriivorsity Museum. The important point is that experiments on these and other mice have revealed, according to Dr. Cherry, that cancer and tuberculosis in man have features pointing to a related causation. important fact is tho resemblance between experimental cancer in mice and that found in human beings, and the production of cancer in mice by a chronic internal irritant in the form of the tubercle bacillus. Thus, it seems the little mice that we all dread may yet help man to fight successfully one of the world's greatest scourges. The proceedings of the Medical Congress left the clear-cut and conclusive impression that, except in one or two States, notably Queensland and New South. Wales, Australia is riot pursuing as ag» ' gressively as it might do the battle against the cancer scourge. Some of the doctors were frankly critical of what they regarded as the lack of co-ordination, for example, in fighting the disease, During the sittings of congress a letter appeared in Sydney's leading morning newspaper under the signature, "Layman," which, judging from the writer's treatment of tho subject, obviously masked the identity of someone with more than tlie. layman's knowledge of cancer. Without committing oneself to. the writer's opinions, the last passage of his letter, whether based on good or nnsound premises, is certainly interesting. It runs:—"Why not direct the energies of tho scientist (in cancer research) to the long neglected herbal kingdom? The wonderful action of Sanguinaria canadensis on cancerous growth is certainly worthy of attention, so also is the juice of the various 'ficus. There are many botanic drugs which will cleanse and purify the blood. In North Queensland many cases .can be given of the cure of internal cancer by the copious use of crude molasses.

"It is to the vegetable kingdom that we owe the cure of .that century-old curse, leprosy, so why despise it m the war, unsuccessful up to the present, against cancer?" Whether or not doctors pcoh-pooh the writer's opinion, his letter, in its entirety, indicates clearly that Le is in close contact with the .cruel sufferings of the scourge. -