SYMPOSIUM ON PUBLIC HEALTH PROBLEMS 106 
Radium, because these agents can be made to destroy a small 
focus of cancer if it should remain after the major portion 
has been removed by the knife. 
As has already been pointed out the weak point in the use 
of the cold steel knife in cancer is the possibility of scattering 
the disease by its use. In order to avoid this danger the author 
devised a knife which is heated by electricity. Wherever this 
knife touches cancer it kills it so that there can be no dissemin- 
ation of the disease in new areas. A curious and interesting 
fact regarding the use of heat in cancer is that a mass 
of cancer is killed when the temperature in the growth is raised 
to 113° F. and maintained for ten minutes. So that cancer, if 
it is at all accessible, should be removed by the hot knife, and 
if it cannot be removed, it should be destroyed by raising the 
temperature in the growth to fully 113° F. This is far and 
away the most efficient means so far devised of dealing with 
the fully developed malignant mass. The small masses that 
may be left because contiguous to some vital organ or organs, 
as the large blood vessels or bladder or rectum, can then be 
reached by large doses of X-Ray applied by those thoroughly 
conversant with its application. 
It has been known to physicians for anaes that if the 
sufferer from malignant disease should accidentally develop an 
intercurrent attack of erysipelas, he would also in a rather 
large percentage of cases be cured of his cancer. The reason 
for this has never been understood until Delbet of Paris, fol- 
lowing some experiments on mice and rats suffering from 
cancer, announced that it was the heat or fever developed in 
the body during the progress of the erysipelas that caused the 
destruction of the malignant growth. 
It is also an interesting fact that following the removal or 
the destruction of a mass of cancer by the hot knife or the ap- 
plication of heat the patient’s suffering is practically nothing, 
completely cooked flesh does not complain. 
So far I have very briefly outlined the cancer problem as it 
affects the public today. There seems to be no very secure 
foundation on which to base a prophecy as to the lines that 
further study of the cancer problem and its final treatment, 
based on this study, will take. Many trained men believe and 
