102 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
of the title of this paper, “Cancer as a Public Health Problem.” 
The problem is, to get the individual would-be sufferer to act 
early and quickly. But suppose there is doubt as to the real char- 
acter of the growth? The answer issimple. If an experienced 
physician or surgeon is in doubt as to the nature of the growth, 
the patient should be given the benefit of the doubt and have 
it removed at once. If the abnormal growth is permitted to 
develop until there is no doubt as to its nature, effective treat- 
ment is futile in just the degree that its removal is delayed. 
If it progresses to the stage where the neighbors or the 
casual passer-by can make the diagnosis, its destruction be- 
comes the greatest problem in surgery, and the necessary treat- 
ment frequently required is so heroic in its character as to 
make the surgeon and the layman alike question the wisdom 
of making the attempt. 
When we remember in an acute way how awful and how 
hopeless the latter stages of the disease are, we shall better ap- 
preciate the wisdom back of the official motto of the American 
Society for the Prevention of Cancer when it says: “In the 
Early Recognition of Cancer lies the only hope of Cure.” 
Should there be any little mass that persists, or, if sore, that 
heals suspiciously slowly ; any lump that can not be accounted 
for; any discharge that is unnatural, i. e., persistent or offen- 
sive or bloody, find out, if you value the joy that comes from 
freedom from suffering, what it is that is back of it. 
Why women especially will hide a tumor or ignore an ab- 
normal discharge is one of the mysteries of every physician’s 
professional life. One can not help but question whether there 
may not be in cancer a toxic product which affects the brain 
of the sufferer in such a way that he will not or cannot sense 
its relationship in an intelligent way to the doom due to neglect 
that awaits him, It is well known that the tubercular are us- 
ually optimistic even when well advanced in the disease and 
probably the same explanation will hold good in regard to 
cancer, that it in its progress elaborates after all a beneficent 
toxic substance which will rationally explain their unwarranted 
hopefulness. 
Therefore, and to repeat: Early recognition, combined with 
adequate removal, usually means a comparatively easy and 
