178 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [June, 



introducing foreign sorts. Suchland, iiowever, by starting the 

 sweating process witii pure cultures of germs obtained from 

 the finer foreign tobaccos, has been able so to influence the flavor 

 of the German weed as to deceive experienced connoisseurs. — 

 Abst. Centralblatt f. Bad., xli, 20. 



MEDICAL MICROSCOPY. 



The Origin and Character of Cancer. — Microscopical 

 research has furnished a theory of the character of cancer other- 

 wise lacking. It is believed that in the wide group of maladies 

 comprised under this term we have a reversion of the normal 

 cells of healthy tissues to a primitive embryonic condition, 

 wherein each cell becomes a quasi-independent creature, compar- 

 able with the amoeba, and which preys- upon the other tissues as 

 a parasite, or rather as an autosite. 



The various grounds, microscopical and clinical, on which 

 this theory is based were recently discussed before the Western 

 Microscopical Club in London. Dr. Herbert Snow alluded to 

 the occurrence of auto-inoculation, whereby spontaneous grafting 

 of minute fragments detached from the primary tumor infects dis- 

 tant, and, perhaps, numerous parts of the patient's body. Con- 

 trasted with this case of self-inoculation is the extreme difficulty 

 of procuring purposive cancer-inoculation in the lower mammalia. 

 With the exception of a numerically small group due to the rem- 

 nants of foetal structures not entirely obliterated after birth, in 

 which the disease appeared to arise spontaneously, the dread 

 malady was almost restricted to the eldeil}- and old on the one 

 hand : on the other, either to organs which were normally under- 

 going devolution after having fulfilled their period of functional 

 activity, as in the female, or to parts whose vitalit}', for some ob- 

 vious reason, become impaired, as happens ordinarily in the male 

 sex. Blows, excessive smoking, and neglected dental irritation 

 were cited among such reasons for attack. 



Cancer picks out a solitary individual here and there — has no 

 even probable association with climate — and attacks civilized races 

 only. But it attacks them regardless of the part of the globe in 

 which they live. In these respects it is strongly contrasted with 

 those diseases commonly ascribed to the action of microbes. In 

 England and Wales alone it claims some 30,ooo victims annually. 

 Two-thirds of these are females past the prime of life. The num- 

 ber increases year by year, as the struggle for existence becomes 

 more and more severe, and as the conditions of life get less and 

 less natural. In this respect, cancer stands alone, no other dis- 

 ease showing a progressive increase. The interest attaching to 

 this unenviable peculiarity should lead to renewed efforts to solve 

 completely this serious problem. — E. Mechanic. 



