A SCOURGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4407, 13 July 1901, Page 2

A SCOURGE.

HAS THE GERM OF CANCER “BEEN FOUND? Tho announcement has been made, says the “New York Tribune,” that Professor H, 11. Gaylord, of the University of Buffalo, has discovered the germ of cancer. Prominent physicians in New York are somewhat sceptical on this subject, and the announcement will not bo fully f pted without further evi* donee. But it is an exceeding!}' interesting statement, and will attract a good deal of attention, the more so bo* causa during the last ten or twelve years there has been a remarkable increase in the prevalence of cancer in New York State and in England. It is impossible to say whether this condition of things prevails in tho United States and Europe as a whole as well. Tho discovery of parasites that are peculiar to many other diseases in tb.o last twenty years has naturally excited suspicion that cancer had such a cause. Ami this belief has been strengthened by circumstances which suggest that cancer is contagious. Consequently there have lic6n investigations by a deaen or more experts in Europe and America, inspired by the hope of finding a definite germ. Several of these men have behoved that 'they had succeeded in tho search. Dr Gaylord’s announce* ment is net t l - 1 ® first of its kind therefore. Unfortunately none of the other stories have proved convincing to tho nrofession, and it is possible that the Buffalo man mav also have deceived himself. Dr Gaylord, in describing his work, mentions certain minute bodies that he found in cancerous tissues. They looked n little like fat cells and a little like other cells which had undergone degeneration. But they did not net like either of these when tested, and hexlCo th 0 doctor thought tfiat they must be vho cause of tho disease. Ha took seme of the serum from a concensus patient’s body, injected it into a rabbit, and awaited developments. Eventually tho rabbit had a cancer in one lung.

The small bodies that Wor6 fOlind ih cancerous .tissues are now regarded as disease germs by Dr Gaylord. They differ, in his judgment, from the parasites of many other diseases in being low forms of animal life, instead of vegc» table forms. The bacillus >f tuberculosis, for instance, and that of typhoid fever, are credited to the vegetable kingdom, like diatoms and algae. The most rudimentary forms of animal life are called protozoa. The amoeba is a protozoon. This is a tiny jelly-like object, almost shapeless anil without' any apparent organisation. But it has the power of elongating itself, or reach* ing out and contracting a part of its body, and by this means making headway. Dr Gaylord thinks that the germ nf cancer is a protozoon of the same low degree as the amoeba. Still, while nearly all of the disease germs which have been satisfactorily identified belong to the vegetable kingdom, it should he observed that the parasite of malaria (found in the blood) behaves a good deal like an antbehia. And there has recently been an alleged discovery, by a foreigner, of the parasite of small-pox. This, too, is prcnjolinced a protozoon. In order to determine the, accuracy of Dr Gaylord’s suspicions it will be necos. salw to conduct a uood many mote ex* periments. When th 6 germ of cancer is 'at last positively identified, the effort will be made to devise a preventiv e _ or curative agent from it. corresponding to an antitoxin. Whether this can be done with a protcZoon as effectively as with a bacterium, though, remains to bo seen. But if shell an achievement sliould ever do recorded, it would bo even more valuable to mankind than finding the gferm.