CAUSES OF CANCER.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 18239, 13 July 1931, Page 3

CAUSES OF CANCER.

NOT WHAT BUT HOW WE EAT. CONQUEST OF DISEASE. Although tlie definite causes of cancer have not yet been found, it is possible to give some idea of the things that are not specifically responsible. “Not the food Ave eat, but the way Ave eat it, may give rise to cancer,” says Dr. D. A. Welch, Professor of Pathology in the University of Sydney. “Grass eaters (horses and cattle), flesh eaters (dogs and cats), and mixed eaters (man), all are subject to cancer. A vegetarian diet does not protect against cancer, neither does a flesh diet predispose to it. Many animals in domesticity are saved from cancer because Ave kill them for our food before they reach the uuince age. “Nor can our civilisation be blamed for our cancers, because the primitive races of mankind are also liable, probably not to the same extent as avc are, for three reasons: (1) Because avc have acquired certain injurious habits Avliieh I need not specify; (2) because avo have reached a higher biological development Avith its attendant penalties; and (3) because avc attain a greater average age and thus prolong the cancer period. “The remedy that Avill at once occur to some minds is to go back to primitive life, to Avithdraw from civilisation. I am in sympathy Avith that remedy so far as it means the reform of some of our hurtful habits. But to turn doAvn our rich inheritance of civilised life is to turn back the hands of the clock The real remedy is to turn back the onslaught of cancer.” To “turn hack the onslaught of cancer” is the great aim of the British Empire Cancer Crusade, of Avhich the King is patron. New Zealand must do its part, not only in research, but in helping to provide the funds for the extensive work that is demanded for the conquest of cancer.