THE Thames Star. FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1926. DETECTING DISEASE BY SPECTROSCOPE.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16787, 14 May 1926, Page 4

THE Thames Star.

FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1926. DETECTING DISEASE BY SPECTROSCOPE.

* 4 “With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness In the right, as God gives us to see the right."—Lincoln.

People who have been interested in what is known as the Abrams treatment of disease will be interested in an announcement made in England quite' recently by Dr H. M. Mitchell, senior surgeon at the Liverpool Cancer Hospital, regarding a new method 'by which cancer can be detected in its early stages in any organ of the body. The method, which is that of -a German scientist, consists of the measuring of blood reactions spectroscopically, and not the least interesting point about it is that it will indicate, six months after an operation, whether the disease has •been removed from the organs affected. Dr Mitchell stated that the scientist can now tell the presence of the abnormal,conditions that are looked upon as the ' forenmners of cancer, and can indeed name the precise organ of the body in which the cancer is located or may develop. This discovery, if further demonstrations should prove its soundness, is of the utmost importance to all medical men, for the most baffling feature of cancer is the fact that in the early stages, when treatment would be most effective, it gives no indication, by pain or otherwise, of its presence. ‘The fight against this disease is going on steadily, and the latest number of the “Lancet” gives some very interesting facts regarding the lead treatment. This treatment, which has been adopted by Professor W. Blair Bell, honorary- director of the Liverpool 'Cancel-Research Committee, is still in the experimental stage, and must be investigated and perfected along many lipes. Out of two hun dred cases treated, there were ten in which cancer was completely arrested, and thirty-one in which the patients were believed to be cured. The results do not seem to be very striking, and it would be wrong to raise false hopes regarding the treatment, but further investigations will be followed with interest. It is, however, of the utmost importance to known that research in the early detection of cancer is continuing, for by that means it should be possible to study preventive rather than curative methods, and in that direction the greatest hope for the future lies.