ON THE PREVALENCE OF CANCER IN AUSTRALASIA. 



By EUGEN HIRSCHFELD, M.D. 



Hoiiorarii Bacteriologist to the Brisbane Hospital. 



[Read before the Roi/al Society of Queensland, 19th May, 1894. 



It has been pointed out in previous papers read before this 

 Society that all attempts to establish a definite theory on the 

 causation of cancer generally have failed to furnish a thorough 

 and satisfactory explanation of all the phenomena presented by 

 this formidable disease. Hereditary transmission, preceding 

 injury, and parasitic infection — every one of these factors bear 

 a relationship to a certain number of cases of cancer which it 

 would be impossible, even for a sceptical observer, to assign 

 to mere coincidence. But in a series of other cases the same 

 factor is apparently without any influence whatever on the 

 production of the tumour — the characteristics of which are the 

 same as previously. In contradistinction to this multitude 

 of alleged modes of origin, the uniformity of its anatomical 

 appearances, its clinical symptoms and its fatal termination, 

 make it evident that the factors hitherto considered exercise a 

 predisposing influence only just in the same manner as heredity, 

 confinement in close rooms, infection with certain diseases — 

 measles, whooping cough, and prolonged lactation predispose 

 people to become consumptive. With reference to consump- 

 !jion, however, we are, through the discoveries of Professor 

 Koch, thoroughly acquainted with its real cause, the tubercle 

 bacillus ; while as to the real cause of cancer we still remain in 

 ignorance despite the many theories brought forward. Under 

 these circumstances it is of great importance to collect all the 

 facts furnished by experience for the purpose of examining what 

 influence they have on the prevalence of cancer. 



