98 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
The minute anatomy is no longer normal for that special 
tissue, Disorderly arrangement is substituted for orderly ar- 
rangement. The cells grow, cell upon cell. They crowd to- 
gether in wild disorder. Those in the center of the mass are 
jammed so closely together that they are deprived, of their 
nourishment from the body fluids and die; and as a result 
we get the common picture of ulceration. 
This process of visible destruction is one of ‘the too well 
known horrors of the advanced case of cancer. When this 
breaking down of the tissues commences because of depriva- 
tion of the blood supply, it is increased and hastened by the 
entrance of the pus producing organisms. This always indi- 
cates the later and usually hopeless stage of cancer. Un- 
fortunately the victim of the disease up to this advanced 
stage suffers no pain. Did pain characterize the early stages 
of cancer, its possessor would insist upon its immediate re- 
moval. Asa result, in the vast majority of cases, there would 
be no “late stages” of the disease. When this process of ul- 
ceration is initiated it of necessity also involves the blood 
vessels and lymphatics. When these open channels are broken 
into, the debris of the disease, i.e., the cancer cells and pus 
organisms, enter the blood stream and the changes in the in- 
dividual patient begin to be marked. He shows even to the 
ordinary observer that he is sick. He loses weight, he no 
longer cares for food, and his skin loses its normal look and 
becomes dry and sallow, often a lemon yellow. When these 
broken down cancer cells get into the blood stream they may 
be arrested in any vessel that is too small to permit them to pass 
on. When this occurs they start a new growth in this new en- 
vironment and they grow with seemingly increased virulence. 
It makes little difference where the new growth starts, in the 
lip or in the female breast, when these cells or germs get into the 
circulating blood they may stop in the liver or spine, or in the 
walls of the intestine and at once begin their characteristic 
mischief like a German soldier transplanted to Belgium or 
France or Serbia. These, then are some of the reasons why 
the cancer cell is the anarchist among cells. It is the supreme 
disturber and destroyer of the orderly processes of normal 
physiological growth. 
What starts the aberrant growth of cells which, when we 
recognize it, we call cancer? An endless amount of valuable 
