IN THE REPAIRING SHOPS 275 



does happen that they not only break away from tradition 

 but something very like mutiny occurs. In certain parts 

 of the body — in the stomach, for example, or on the lips, 

 in the womb or female breasts — there are certain castes 

 which have earned a most unenviable reputation for the 

 frequency with which they break through the bonds 

 which keep neighbouring unit castes in harmony. The 

 nature of these living units suddenly changes ; a war of 

 caste breaks out. Instead of carrying on their traditional 

 duties in peace and with mutual goodwill with their 

 neighbours, members of one caste increase rapidly in 

 numbers and break into the territories of surrounding 

 castes. They wear down and destroy all opposition and 

 eat their way into the machinery of the body, and ulti- 

 mately destroy the whole machine. A caste mutiny on 

 the part of a set of living units of the body we name 

 cancer. My friend Mr Morley Roberts, who has given 

 this cancerous manifestation of cell rebellion much close 

 study, is of opinion that the living units of one caste are 

 kept in proper restraint by the units of an adjoining caste 

 and that when rebellion breaks out the fault lies not 

 with the rebels but in the weakness of the neighbouring 

 restraint. If that is so, then the discovery of the pre- 

 vention of cancer will come to the man who finds out the 

 manner in which Nature regulates the lives of the micro- 

 scopic units of that most highly organised of all empires 

 — the Human Body. In the right understanding of the 

 Human Machine lie the keys to Health and Life. 



