CAUSES OF CANCER.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11992, 10 July 1903, Page 4

CAUSES OF CANCER.

The increase of cancer, is the. subject of a nemiarkable article by Dr. Alfred Wolff in the June number of the "Nineteenth, Century." First in order of importance he places the alarming increase in thle number of deaths from touis mialflgnant scourge. This is a tiable -which- fcells its own grim' story: — Death rate per 100,000 living. 1890. 1900. Ireland 46 ... 61 Prussia *... 45 ... 61 Holland 79 ••• 91 Norway 61 ... 84 In England: and Wales in 1900 the death rate from cancer per 100,000 was 82.8. Dealing with the causes which make for oanoer, Dr. Wolff reaohles some ainiazilng conclusions. All the dUstoicts where thereis a high cancer morfcal'itiy, he finds, are districts in which beer or cider is largely consumed. In Bavaria,, which ; heads the canoer list in G^rjnian-^ more beer, is consumed per head thlan mi any State in the world. In France in beer-drinking dilstricts the canoer mortality rate. Is high; in the . wine-id'rinking diistcrLctoa it is low. Aniother striking conclusion is that district®' covered with wood's and foiiests conduce, to aaricer. The north-eastern1 departments of France, the States of Bavaria andi Baden in Germany, the provinces of Salzburg and Tyrol in Austria—aU heavy cancer districts—are the most thickly woodied portions of those countries. Some races are mlora subject to cancer than others, Dr. Wolff declares. Peoples of S'candanavian or Teutonic origin are susceptible fco it, while those of Celtic or Slavonic origin have an exceptionally low mortality in tibia respect. Does this tend to tihe theory that cancer is hereditary? asks Dr. Wolff. He thinks mob, and adopts this negative attitude as a r,esult of study of Annerican death statistics, whetfe the conditions he has found in Europeans at home are frequently totally reversed. He has much to say of the contagious character of cancer, quoting" th« experiences of Dr. Arnaudet, who made a study of the dliisease ia his own village of Ooraiieilles, in Normandy. In Cormeilles, In ai street of fifty-four houses, seventeen had furnished no fewer than twenty-one oases of cancer. In another? village theme were three or four dieathk from cancer found every year, while & group of three houses had supplied five cases in four years. Cases- of dancer communicated between ihjusband and wife are referred to, and iv is stated! that very 'high rates prevail among servants and nurses, people who are likely to be brought into close touchl with canoes patiienfe. Examining his miami uoints in closer detail, Dr. Wolff suggests that the increase of cancer has some direct relation to increased donsumption of beer. He has no convincing explanation to offer of tlie cause of this, but! he thinks it may be traced to the ear trance of isomethinig through j,he water from whilch beer is made or perhaps froml the malt itself. With reference to the connection between canaer anu wooded districts, it is poinetd out that while Sussex, Warwickshire, and Devonshire well-wood-ed counties, have an alarming number of canaer deaths, the bare lands of the Black Country are weE towards the bottom of wie list.