CAUSE OF CANCER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12256, 5 June 1914, Page 8

CAUSE OF CANCER.

'; .Members- of the--Well'ingtoii Hospital; Board appeared surprised to hear a view -that was expressed by Di- Mackenzie" jn. .'"discussing a report on the use of radium for.' the of cancer. He expressed "the opinion, that the increase in the number of cancel.- cases wa.s due to -the,' greater age to which people lived on the average, and that a very large number, of-.people now died of cancer who,, in-the past,would have died of something else. This; aopeci was very important in relation .to what the :Board intended to do. The mat-tr-r was- not, he said, a very urgent one. The-people who were dying "of .cancer had done a considerable portion-of. their-life's, work, and - were, not nearly so" important/ as the young men and women.-who-V'wer.e. 1 dying" of other things. He-■'had. noY the statistics on the point, but he .was satisfied, in his owii "mind, and other medical men' .were satisfied, ' that, a very much larger -.numbervof yqutig people' were dy-: ing frpht-; the'. effects of venereal- diseases than; of -cancer—,and infinitely more valuable .people. "Before, we go into the matter of saving the lives of these old. people, who have got to die of something soon, we should take care to attack these other diseases-rdry far the most prevalent diseases on- earth-" Dr Mackenziecontinued that .he .would not -lie ■at""all- surprised if, in a very, few' years,-some' investigator proyedfjthat' both . tuberculosis .and,cancer . ;wei'e;diH: to the deterioration of .the. tissues, -brought about by venereal diseases. ■He-'liad. information -which led him to believe' that- tuberculosis was often the outcome of- such diseases in the. generation before.'