ORIGIN OF CANCER.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 July 1925, Page 5

ORIGIN OF CANCER.

THE NEW DISCOVERY. CANCER VIRUS PHOTOGRAPHED. Cross Association—Electric Telegraph— CopyrlgL LONDON, Tuesday. The Daily Sketch, in the first "nontechnical explanation published of tlm cancer discovery, says it is now presumed that two definite and distinct factors play a part in producing cancerous tumours. The first is Mr Barnard’s and Dr. Gye *s newly discovered ultra-micro-scopical germ, which is universal, floating in the air like other germs. The second is some dead material of the human body, which is peculiar to the individual. The Sketch asserts that without dead flesh the experimenters could not .induce the germ to produce the cancerous tumour. , iCancer frequently follows blows and other injuries, and it is now clear that these produce dead material, in which the cancer germ develops. The Sketch emphasises that no treatment has yet arisen from the discovery. The Daily Express says that congratulations are being showered on Dr. Gj r e, the biologist, and on Air J. E. Barnard, the expert in microscopy, who are responsible for the cancer discovery. Dr. Gye is a most retiring scientist. He lias been conducting researches on the Medical Research Council’s experimental farm for the past ten years. Air Barnard is purely an amateur scientist, and keeps a West End shop. lie lias 'devoted his leisure for many years to microscopy, and lie invented a special microscopic apparatus for Dr. Gye’s experiments. The Lancet says that Air Barnard, applying the optical methods he elaborated for the study of bovine pleuropneumonia viruses to cancer viruses cultured by Dr. Gye, not only made the cancer virus visible, but photographed it. The results of Air Barnard’s observations so closely correspond to Dr. Gye’s experimental results that the existence of a living cancer virus appears established. The experiments show that there are two factors concerned in the aetiology (science of natural causes) of cancer; first, the living virus, the extrinsic factor; second, the chemical substance produced by the cells, the intrinsic factor.” The Lancet concludes: — “Dr. Gye’s observations may represent the solution of the central problem of cancer.”