ENGLISH EXPERIENCE WITH CANCER. 689 



in 1,000, in the poor classes it is 72 in 1,000 ; or at a rate in the former 

 case of ten per cent, and in the latter of seven per cent. Now, curious 

 as it may seem, cancer is met with in the lower animals ; and it has 

 been said to prevail more frequently among those which are flesh-eaters 

 than those which are herb-eaters. It has been stated by the late Dr. 

 Crisp, who had good opportunities of judging, that cancer is by no 

 means an uncommon disease among the domesticated animals, while 

 in wild animals and uncivilized man it is rare. In 230 also of the 

 quadrumana which he had examined there were no traces of cancer. 

 Thus the inference to be drawn from these statements appears to be 

 plain. It is almost conclusive that the habits of life, either in man or 

 the lower animals, are concerned in the production, or at least in the 

 predisposition, to cancer. The surroundings, it is conceivable, of an 

 autochthonic existence do not include influences which favor the pro- 

 duction of the disease ; consequently, in uncivilized man the disease is 

 rare. It is, however, different when man becomes civilized, for then 

 the predisposing, if not exciting, causes come into play, and man has 

 -entered an area of life in which the disease has acquired not only a 

 pronounced but an augmenting fatality. And the same is true of ani- 

 mals. Now, as far as we know at present, cancer has not a zymotic 

 origin ; in other words, it does not arise from any micro-organism or 

 " germ." It is consequently neither infectious nor contagious. Can- 

 <3er, in short, can neither be " caught " nor " given." It commences 

 de 710V0 in each individual whom it attacks. There is, moreover, no 

 such thing as anything cancerous being transmitted from parent to 

 child in the cases in which the disease occurs in one and the other. It 

 is possible to inherit a predisposition to cancer — that is, if cancer ap- 

 pears in a family, the members may be said to possess a liability to the 

 disease, but practically this statement does not convey with it much 

 significance, because, until the disease becomes manifest, no person can 

 be said to be cancerous, inasmuch as he does not inherit the disease, 

 but simply the liability to it. We are confronted with the problem 

 of how to limit the frequency of the disease, and the difiiculty of this 

 is apparent in view of the fact that we know almost nothing of its 

 origin. Cancer, as I have said, is not contagious ; it stands almost 

 alone as a disease which increases with our prosperity, and, while our 

 health laws are raising the standard of public health, the mortality 

 from cancer stands forth as a blot upon the results, detracting in part 

 at least from the measure of the success that has thus far been obtained. 

 Observation has shown that cancer has a certain geographical distribu- 

 tion. It prevails extensively in some parts of the globe, and is scarcely 

 known in others. For instance, it is met with most largely in the 

 central parts of Europe, but in the extreme north of this continent the 

 inhabitants enjoy an almost complete immunity from cancer. It is 

 stated to be unknown in the Faroe Islands, while in Iceland in one 

 year it proved mortal in only thirty-seven cases out of 50,000 inhabit- 



VOL. XXVI. — 44 



