226 THE PROTEAL TREATMENT OF CANCER 



(according to the proteomorphic theory) byproducts of protein 

 metabolism that are toxic in character are excluded from the 

 system. To compensate this destruction, there must be a constant 

 building of new corpuscles, implying fresh protein supplies and 

 an enormous aggregate expenditure of energy. If the necessary 

 protein supplies are brought in excessive quantities, it follows that 

 the red corpuscles have an excess of byproducts (of the poly- 

 peptid order) to deal with and are necessarily destroyed in 

 excessive numbers. To keep up the supply, calls for an increased 

 expenditure of energy, putting a needless tax on the bodily ma- 

 chine that may manifest itself in an abnormal blood count, 

 increased blood pressure, and ultimately in one or another of the 

 conditions of localized maladjustment above listed. 



But it does not by any manner of means follow that the only 

 cause that can produce such maladjustments is an excess of pro- 

 tein in the digestive tracts. It has already been implied that a 

 marked deficiency might lead to a corresponding sequence of 

 events. The presence of large numbers of bacteria in the intes- 

 tinal tract is in itself a factor that makes constant work for the 

 red blood corpuscles, resulting in a steady nitrogen loss and 

 necessitating a constant restocking with nutritive proteins. So 

 protein starvation might be quite as disastrous as protein reple- 

 tion. The happy mean, here as elsewhere, constitutes the road 

 to health. 



As to exercise, a somewhat similar line of reasoning applies. 

 Every physician nowadays recognizes the necessity for a certain 

 amount of exercise in normalizing the processes of metabolism. 

 But it must not be overlooked that excessive exercise, carried to 

 the point of exhaustion, may have a devitalizing influence that 

 will lead to conditions closely comparable to those resulting from 

 entire lack of exercise. Doubtless a hundred persons suffer from 

 lack of exercise, however, where one suffers from over exercise. 

 So the practical lesson that one is commonly called upon to 

 inculcate is that exercise is the road to health. 



Vigorous exercise is a recognized factor stimulating formation 

 of blood corpuscles ; which fact, according to the present theories, 

 suggests a fairly direct association between exercise and preven- 

 tion of the disturbances of protein metabolism that are here 

 postulated as constituting the true cancerous condition. 



Whereas lack of exercise and improper diet are, in my opinion, 

 the chief causes that lead to the maladjustments of metabolism 

 constituting the cancerous condition, there are, as a matter of 

 course, many minor causes of disturbance. Conspicuous among 

 these is the loss of blood which many women suffer at the meno- 

 pause ; a condition that no doubt contributes very markedly to the 

 genesis of malignant neoplasms; a condition, therefore, which 



