Last Work. I'inai. Honoks 623 



he prepared and sent a note to Science '"'' in the hope of interestinc 

 research. hiLx)ratories in the work he had seen. At Berlin and 

 Dresden, investii^ators had convinced hiin of the possibihty, con- 

 trary to his former bcHefs, that some strain or strains of BacteriNm 

 tuviefitcicns, as yet undiscovered, might prove to he the cause 

 of some of the cancers of man. hi a letter to Dr. Taylor he 

 explained: '"'" 



I have believed for a long time, as you know, that crowni^all has many 

 analogies to malignant human and animal tumors and that its study in 

 many laboratories was bound to throw more or less light on the terrible 

 unsolved human tumor problem, but at the same time I thought only ot 

 similarly acting bacteria as probably the cause of cancers in men and 

 animals and never of Btut. tniJiejaciens as the cause chielly because the few 

 strains we have tested out for temperature relations did not grow in our 

 thermostats at the temperature of warm-blooded animals, although always 

 in the back of riiy head was the suspicion that some strains mii^ht grow at 

 such temperatures, and so I have been always careful in handling the 

 tumors and have generally sterilised my hands afterwards. 



After he returned to the United States, he determined to " try to 

 discover strains able to grow at 38°C," and he still doubted that 

 " the crown gall organism could be the cause of cancer in man." 

 His real belief was that " cancer might be due to some parasite 

 endowed with similar chemical activities." ^^' 



The Blumenthal work made him want to consult Jensen, Fibiger. 

 Deelman, and other cancer research experts. He had not forgotten 

 that " Friedman and his associates claimed to get Bact. tumefaciens 

 from non-tumorous diseased conditions in man, e. g. from the 

 human intestine, several times." Miss Meyer claimed to have got 

 PAl from breast cancer and " closely resembling strains from 15 

 other human cancers "; on agar streaks PAi looked " exactly like 

 BiT'cL tumefaciens." ^'^^ Possibly his objection that an irritant " un- 

 known virus " was introduced with the cancer serum had beet, 

 overcome. He, nevertheless, reiterated this objection after his 

 return to America: "^ and, more important, he still thought tha^ 

 some indiscernible or unknown virus might have been taken in 

 with the PM culture " from the surface of the rat." "° He thought 



^'"'Cancer in plants and in man, Science 61(1581): 419-420, Apr. 17, 1925. 



^"« Berlin, Mar. 5, 1925. 



^"^ Some newer aspects of cancer research, op. cit., 601. 



^"^ Leter to Miss Hedges, Mar. 3, 1925. 



^°* Some newer aspects of cancer research, op. cit., 600-601. 



""Letter to W. A. Taylor, Mar. 5, 1925. 



