The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1908 CANCER RESEARCH.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 3 September 1908, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1908 CANCER RESEARCH.

Five years of continuous investigation ■^•uniform in general aim and thoroughly 'systematic in niethpd ; for the first time in English , medicines-has failed to> produce an antidote for can^ cer. But- it is evident from statements niade at the annual meeting of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund that.the Work is. at least having the effect of making the leaders of the medical profession more and more hopsful c| an ultimately successful result. A compleca pathological examination has been mado :6f more than 10,000 cases of the disease in the hospitals of the United Kingdom; errors in diagnosisAhava been shown; information has been carefully collected from many parts of the world; the. friendly co-operation. of leading Continental surgeons arid .scientists has been secured; and "many thousands" of animals on which minute experiments are in progress are being kept by a staff of selected experts under daily observation, A further series -if their reports will shortly be issued. The encouragement which this Work is giving to practising members of the prii.fession was described by one of them, Mr H. T. Butlin, at the annual meeting of the research fund. Already, he said, the results of the investigation were proving of positive daily value. In his student -days the theory of cancer which held the field was founded on the humeral pathology which then prevailed. They N were taught to believe that cancer existed in the blood, and that the tumor or ulcer was but the outward arid visible sign of the constitutional condition of the patient. Surgeons neyer imagined that they could cure a patient by their operations. They felt the best' they could do was to afford relief and prolong life for a few months or a year. Tho work was done without • courage, and without hope. Then came the theory, held at first only by a few, that cancer in its origin was a local disease, and that it became constitutional only by spreading from the .place where It began. . Until quit© recently any surgeon could feasibly argue in favour of the old idea of constitutional .origin. "The result of all the investigations of. our cancer research," Mr Butlin added, "has been to confirm the theory of the local origin of cancer, 'and to place it on so sound a basis that ho would be a bold man who would venture now to maintain the theory which it has displaced. Aba direct oonse.quence of cancer research, surgeons oporate with a confidence which depends on a more accurate knowledge of the disease with which they have to deal, and far. greater success is attained than has.hitherto been known. While, then, we are anxiously looking for the discovery, of an antidote to cancer, wo surgeons are profoundly grateful for

what has already been done for us, and I have no hesitation in saying that all the timo the labour and money which have been expended on cancer research aro as nothing compared with the benefit which that research has already conferred on medicine and the public." Sir William Church 3 in a review of the work of tho English experts during the last twelve months, referred, to several of the accumulated misconceptions of the past which have been disposed of. "For example," he said, "it was not infrequently asserted a fow years ago, that cancer was practically unknown in Egypt and India, and also among uncivilised races of men. Since this fund has been collecting statistics, wo have already obtained upwards of 2000 cases of well authenticated cancer from hospitals in India, and 297 instances from the Government hospitals of Egypt. Very interesting information has also been received of the occurrence of cancer from Ceylon, Kashmir, British New Guinea and other widely separated portions of the globe."