Is Cancer Inheritable ? 



95 



Is Cancer Inheritable? 



That cancer is not inherited in man 

 is the conclusion of the actuary Arthur 

 Hunter, after an investigation of the 

 family histories of life insurance policy 

 holders. In cases where both of a 

 man's parents died of cancer, only two 

 grandparents, out of 234 known, died 

 of cancer. He also investigated 314 

 sons and daughters of parents, both of 

 whom had died of cancer, and found no 

 cancer whatever among them. Only 

 those were considered who had died 

 above age 40, or were living above that 

 age. Records were obtainable of 301 

 brothers and sisters of these cancerous 

 pairs, and only nine cases of the affection 



were found among them. There were 

 488 families where one parent had died 

 of cancer; of the 810 sons and daughters 

 above age 40, only three were known to 

 have had cancer. Other evidence from 

 various sources is presented to the same 

 effect. Mr. Hunter admits, however, 

 that it may be found that some famihes 

 or races are susceptible and others not, 

 as experimental studies have shown to 

 be the case with mice and rats. He 

 presents evidence to indicate that cancer 

 is not contagious. The facts were given 

 in an address before the Association of 

 Life Insurance Presidents, New York, 

 Deceinber 16. 



Remarkable Motion Pictures Shown 



"How Life Begins," a five-reel motion 

 picture, produced by George E. Stone 

 at the University of California, was 

 exhibited before a special meeting of 

 the Washington members of the Ameri- 

 can Genetic Association on the evening 

 of January 10. Dr. Alexander Graham 

 Bell gave the use of his home for the 

 occasion, and about 130 persons were 

 present. The film, which was designed 

 primarily for sex education, shows the 

 process of fertilization and reproduc- 

 tion in the pea, butterfly, frog, sea- 

 urchin, fowl and rat, as well as the 



process of reproduction by simple fission 

 in Paramecium and by budding in 

 yeast. The processes are explained by 

 excellent diagrams and the details are 

 shown accurately, yet with great deli- 

 cacy and imagination. This film (which 

 is controlled by the Exhibitors' Booking 

 Agency, 220 West Forty-second Street, 

 New York City) will not be commercial- 

 ized, but is to be kept for educational 

 work and a number of colleges and 

 schools have already secured copies of 

 it. It marks a great advance in the 

 teaching of elementary biology. 



Care of the Feebleminded in Germany 



Germany is too slow in making pro- 

 vision for its feebleminded children, 

 according to Herr Strakerjahn, who 

 writes in the Zt. /. d. Behandlung 

 Schwachsinniger (xxxiv. No. 1.) At 

 present the number of those in special 

 institutions is 30,000, while another 

 40,000 are in special schools. He 

 advocates a campaign for the segrega- 

 tion or sterilization of those likeh' 

 to become parents of feebleminded 

 children. 



It appears that Germany is at least 

 ahead of the United States, if the above 

 figures are correct, for the number of 

 feebleminded receiving institutional care 

 in this country is not much above 

 30,000, although the pouplation of the 

 United States is half again as great as 

 that of Germany. It is of course not 

 possible to say whether the proportion 

 of feebleminded in the total population 

 is the same in the two countries, as 

 the figures for both are unknown. 



