THE CANCER APPEAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18619, 15 July 1930, Page 3

THE CANCER APPEAL.

To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir,—As members of the medical profession in Timaru, we should like to give our whole-hearted support to the Cancer Campaign. Whilst not wishing to increase the fear of any individual who has a dread of the disease, it is only right that the attention of the community as a whole should be drawn to the facts of the position. The tables published in this morning’s paper speak for themselves. Though it may be possible to explain some of the alleged Increase of mortality by considerations of statistical fallacies, there can be little doubt that the disease is increasing. If this conclusion be granted then in a very special way the appeal for funds concerns everybody. The money is being raised for two main objects: (1) To assist in the effort that is being made all over the world to find the cause of cancer. (2) To purchase radium. Whilst in the past surgery has cured very many sufferers from the disease, and is still doing so, it has been found that radium is capable of curing cer-

tain forms of it better than operative treatment, and without the latter’s ] necessary mutilation. It is possible i that with more experience with radium more varieties of cancer will be found to be amenable to it. In any case radium is very expensive, and a lot more is required to deal adequately with the patients needing it at the present time. Whilst the appeal so far has met with much success, we are | still short of the quota expected from this town and district. It is notable that a large share of the contributions has come from the less wealthy members of the community, and one of our reasons in writing this letter is to call the attention of those who have not so far contributed to the fund, to its objects. ’With such a wide spread disease, few homes are likely to entirely escape its ravages. It is up to all of us to assist in the provision of the means to fight it if only as an insurance to ourselves. There is still more reason for us to help the sufferers if we are fortunate enough to r. ;cape. One of your correspondents raised the question of the publication of the early symptoms of cancer by the medical profession; whilst another, a layman, attempted to reply. Propaganda work in this connection is best dealt with by the Health Department. Its officers have already issued circulars which can be seen in public places such as railway stations and post offices. Possibly more activity in this direction would be advantageous. We would like to correct a very common fallacy which indeed your second correspondent perpetuates in his letter Pain is not an early symptom of cancer; it is usually a late one. Any swelling or abnormal lump in the body should be examined. It may be or it may not be of any importance, but for God’s sake let the doubt be solved at once. Internal cancers are usually accompanied by bleeding or discharge in some form or another. Such symptoms should at once be notified and the cause ascertained. We can safely assert that if only the victims of the disease were to report their symptoms when the: occur, without any delay, the death-rate from cancer would be very materially reduced.—We are, WILLIAM C. BURNS. D. D. DRYDEN. W. R. FEA. C. STANLEY FRASER. W. E. GIBSON. R. D. KING. GEORGE R. KINGSTON: J. CAMPBELL McKENZIE. CHARLES A. PATERSON. L. S. TALBOT. F. F. A. ULRICH. W. H. UNWIN. GEO. H. USSHER. Timaru, July 14. THE CANCER MENACE. To the Editor of the “ Timaru Herald.” Sir, —I agree entirely with the views expressed by your Friday's correspondent on the cause and prevention of cancer; and I would be glad to secure a small space in your widely-read paper, in which to amplify his statei ments on the subiect. It is admitted i by all authorities that cancer is a disease of senile tissues, hence, at one i time not so very long ago, . cancer was looked for only among ; elderly people, who had used up ! the greater part of that definite stock • of vitality which they possessed when [ they began the journey of life. ToL day, comparatively young people are ! developing cancer, .and they are doing l so because some of their tissues have ; become devitalised and worn out from l causes, which do not seem to have ; operated a few generations ago, for young folks did not then become the l victims of cancer as they are doing , now. From this it is reasoned that l processes are operating now, which - are ageing the .tissues of the human

body, and that those processes are comparatively new, as they do not seem to have been known a few generI ations ago, when cancer was almost I wholly confined to those whose tissues I had become senile naturally; that is to say, that there is something which we are doing or failing to do, which ' is rapidly making some parts of our I body, if not all, prematurely old, and j therefore susceptible to cancer. Those j who have given this subject most thought, are agreed that what we are doing is that we are systematically starving our tissues, reducing their vitality and making them prematurely old, by eating the wrong kind of food, and drinking the wrong kinds of liquids, and generally ignoring the laws of health. It has been pointed out by such outstanding authorities as Sir Will.am Arbuthnot-Lane, that, as cancer is most often found associated with the digestive track, the mouth, the throat, the stomach the bowels, the liver and the pancreas, the food is at once brought under suspicion, as a probable cause; and when the food of today is compared with the food of former times, when cancer was not nearly so common as it is to-day, it is found to be lacking in those very substances which are known to be necessary to health and juvenility. A deficiency of those elements is known to cause first, constipation, second, absorption of bacterial poisons from the stagnant bowels, third, a poisoning of the tissues, and fourth, a devitalisation of those tissues which paves the way for more serious forms of disease. Put shortly, our present-day food supply causes vitamin and mineral starvation, auto-intoxication and cancer. And, the advice given by those authorities is, not to temporise with purgatives and aperients in cases of chronic constipation, but to place ourselves under some doctor who will put us in the way of removing the cause of the constipation, and the train of more intractable conditions likely to arise from it. As it would take probably fifty years to revolutionise the food supply of the civilised world, we must find some other way of coping with cancer while that revolution is being carried on. Fortunately an almost certain remedy for cancer has very timeously come to our aid, in the form of that most wonderful substance called radium. It has been found that radium has a marvellous selective affinity for cancer cells, and that, when properly used, it seeks out those cells and quickly destroys them. Already it has been demonstrated that when the disease is subjected to the radium treatment early, almost every case is curable. Here, surely is hope for suffering humanity. For twenty years the present writer i has been appealing to the public to wake up and do something to stay the rapid progress of this most dreadful scourge, before it entirely wipes out the civilised races of the world, as it is certainly threatening to do, he therefore, makes no apology for now appealing to all who are especially blessed with an abundance of this world's goods, to give their hundreds and their thousands of pounds to help mankind in winning the greatest war the world has ever known, and, in all probability the greatest war the world will ever know. I appeal to the wealthy more particularly for the reason that we are dealing with a disease which is decimating the occupants of mansions, quite as much as those in humbler i walks of life. I have to apologise to those who are in charge of the Cancer ; Fund, and who are pleading for money to begin this war in earnest, for but- ; ting in as I have done; but, as I have • pointed out, I have been in this fight ; for many years, and I would be a poor j soldier indeed were I to leave the field ; j simply because powerful reinforcements j have entered it and shown how the ' j enemy is to be vanquished.—l am, etc. I HUMANITY. J Timaru, July 14.