72 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



uncommonly appear earlier in life. Any source of irritation, 

 be it mechanical as the effect of a jagged tooth on the cheek or 

 tongue; actinic, as the action of the Roentgen or ultra-violet 

 rays upon the skin; thermic, as the effect of a hot pipe stem 

 upon the tongue or lip; or chemic, as the action of arsenic 

 and aniline dyes upon the skin, predisposes to cancer. 



The prevention of cancer depends upon the education of 

 the public as to the dangers of chronic irritation, as to the im- 

 portance of the early symptoms and the necessity of an early 

 operation. It should be universally known that any lump in 

 the breast or unusual bleeding from the uterus in a woman 

 above thirty-five requires investigation to exclude cancer. 

 Sores, warts, and swellings of the lips or tongue in an indi- 

 vidual over forty should be brought immediately to the sur- 

 geon for diagnosis. Bleeding from the bowels of a person of 

 similar age demands the exclusion of cancer. Warts or moles 

 that begin to show signs of growth or soreness should be re- 

 moved at once. Suspicious growths should be given expert 

 microscopical examination. All the precautions used against 

 external precancerous lesions should be taken to avoid and 

 discover beginning internal cancer. The best way to make a 

 curable cancer hopeless is to delay operation or to use plasters 

 and salves. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTABLE DISEASE 



Society is demanding each year greater skill and increased 

 efficiency of its members, a requirement that calls for a 

 larger investment in the training of the individual and a con- 

 dition that makes the economic loss due to preventable disease 

 most appalling. So many factors contribute to this waste that 

 it is practically impossible to state it in figures. 



Nine-tenths of all children dying of measles, whooping 

 cough, scarlet fever and diphtheria, and all those dying of diar- 

 rhea, or any disease, before the tenth year, represent a total loss, 

 for economic values have been created and destroyed without 

 giving return. 



The toll of syphilis, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis, is heav- 

 iest during the period of greatest usefulness. The ravages of 

 syphilis are large between thirty and forty-five, but greatest 

 between forty-five and sixty. It shortens the expectancy of 



