332 Recognition in America 



at the University of Buffalo and for many years surgeon-in-chief 

 of the Buffalo General Hospital. On May 1, 1898, Dr. Park also 

 wrote Smith: 



I wish to thank you sincerely for your kindness in placing our school 

 on your mailing hst, etc. I am happy to be able to state that our School 

 has just received an appropriation of $10,000 for equipping and main- 

 taining a " Laboratory for the study of Cancer," the first of its kind in 

 the world. 



Dr. Park told Smith that he was " anxious not only to study 

 ' cancer ' in trees [plants] etc., but [also to} collect the literature 

 of the subject "; and he bespoke their future interest in mutual 

 assistance which would " redound to our common benefit." " One 

 great aim of [Dr. Park's] life," Dr. Stockton has revealed ""^ was 

 " to know the nature of cancer. . , This led to the establishment, 

 first in the University of Buffalo, of the Gratwick Laboratory, 

 which became in 1911 the New York State Laboratory and Hos- 

 pital for the Study of Malignant Disease." 



In 1893 Dr. Park had published on " The Parasitic Theory of 

 the Etiology of Carcinoma." "^ In 1889, at the Cleveland meeting, 

 a collection of fifty-four cultures of bacteria and moulds on agar- 

 agar prepared by him had been exhibited to the Botanical Club 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science."^ 

 He must have known of Smith's early studies of stem and root 

 tumors of cultivated tree and vine plants. The two men, interested 

 in comparative pathology, began to exchange letters on occasions. 

 When later Smith's more important studies on the etiology of 

 plant tumors began to acquire significance in working out prob- 

 lems in the etiology of animal tumors, Dr. Park classed his work 

 among those from whom medical science might expect " light 

 upon the general subject of cancer." ^^^ The story of how and 

 why this became so will form a theme throughout the remainder 

 of this book. 



22: 91-123, with bibliography. Paper read at a meeting of the Society on April 13, 

 1916. 



'*" Op. cil., 108. 



^*' Neiv York Med. Jour., March 4; Trans, of Med. Sac. of State of N. Y., 1893; 

 Med. and Surgical Reporter, Feb. 18. 



"■^^ Botanical Gazette 14: 263, Oct. 1889. 



^** Letter from Dr. Park to Smith, July 15, 1912. 



