SEARCH FOR THE CANCER CURE

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8293, 23 September 1903, Page 4

SEARCH FOR THE CANCER CURE

Public statements with regard to medical discoveries, chiefly in connection with the X-rays and radium, succeed one another with such rapidity that it is_difficult to follow them with precision. The deepest interest, naturally, is centred on th.e ments of those who are trying to work their way to the discovery of a cure for can-cer,-which, as a cause of death in this country, ranks second only to phthisis. The results of a series of experiments in Great Britain and on the Continent certainly are such as to arouse the hopes of expert investigators, who are how deVoting themselves entirely to this great problem, that they are at least on" the right track. It would be rash and unjustifiable at present to say more,- yet statements- are constantly appearing in the daily press_ raising false hopes of sufferers that a cure has been- found at last.

One such was made last month by eminent bacteriologists, who have been engaged entirely in the last six months in research work at the laboratory of the Royal College of Surgeons under the auspices of the cancer research fund. Drs Murray and Bashford, who were among those appointed investigators, refuse to give confirmation to the story. Nothing, they declare, is being neglected by the committee, and consequently much research has taken place with respect to incipient cancer in lower animals, yet the causes -of cancer in these animals are often of an entirely different nature from those in man. The parasitic"conditions are different, while the treatment which would be adopted and proves successful in the cases of animals, could never be applied to human bfeings. The cancer cure, said one of the physicians, will never be discovered by one ■man When it is found it will be by the continuous -efforts of every' one engaged. One little clue leads to another and nobody hides anything or -tries to hide anything from his colleagues. It must be noted, too, that there is not the slightest intimation in the report presented lately to the first ,-innnal meeting of the Cancer Research Fund Committee that any definite results from the experiments are imminent. Prof. Duguet, an eminent Paris physician and professor in the French Academy of Medicine, declares that the experiments hitherto made - have revealed nothing on which to base scientific treatment. He says: "We are still groping in the dark with regard to the reported cures by the X-rays. My long experience in the largest hospitals in Paris has made me most sceptical. Believe me, these 'cures' are not definite." . The Middlesex Hospital m London is the pioneer in cancer research in Great Britain. It receives suggestions of cures from all parts of the world weekly. Many are fairly tried, but, hitherto without success. The Middlesex Hospital doctors authorise the positive statement that, while they do not assert- -that they have effected anything like a cure by means of-the X-rays and Finsen light treatments, yet the pain has been abolished.

Edison's experience of ill effects from prolonged exposure to the X-rays is no new thing in the London hospita'ls, where it has long been found that the demonstrators who are daily in the presence of the rays are liable to epithelioma, a malignant growth ■on the skin which is nearly allied to cancer. The workers in the radiograph department of the London hospitals are now on an enforced vacation, with their hands injured, but this is not a common experience. One precaution taken in some of the Continental hospitals is that- of employing a leaden screen when taking radiographs, so that only the necessary surface shall be exposed to the rays. This plan,'it is thought by the English physicians, is not necessary, and the suggestion that the operators wear leaden mittens is thought to be impossible, as they would probably destroy the medical properties of the rays. Various newly discovered rays of surprising properties have been disclosed in the N rays recently discovered by M. Blondlot. They have been found capable of raising the luminosity of a glowing solid or gas without raising the temperature thereof. More light witllout more heat may be regarded as something of a paradox. An article in- the Electrician, commenting on this, says there seems to be, under the influence of the N rays, some modification of the atomic vibrations which, while leaving their energy unaltered, increases their frequency. In afty case, the fact itself is of great importance and interest. Anything tending to increase the luminosity of a body at the expense of its temperature brings us nearer to a solution of the great problem of the economical production of light.