CANCER AND THE LYMPHOID SYSTEM 275 



now to emphasize this aspect of the matter in the light of the 

 statement above quoted from Ward to the effect that : "It is well 

 known that the most powerful and efficient stimulants of blood 

 regeneration are the products of blood destruction." 



I am inclined to think that a large measure of the benefits 

 sometimes unquestionably attained in cancer from the use of X- 

 ray and radium may be explained as due to their destructive in- 

 fluence on the blood corpuscles. It is well known that in general 

 leukaemias, the number of white corpuscles may be reduced by 

 X-ray treatment. It is also known that radium exercises a de- 

 structive influence on the blood corpuscles. It follows that these 

 influences must stimulate the blood-forming mechanism, inasmuch 

 as their use tends to saturate the blood, more or less, with "the 

 products of blood destruction." 



In point of fact, I have observed that patients that had un- 

 dergone X-ray or radium treatment before applying for Proteal 

 treatment sometimes show a blood picture precisely of the 

 kind that we have come to regard as favorable, and as indicating 

 the best possible response to the proteal treatment itself. I am 

 strongly inclined to the opinion that in many cases this favorable 

 blood picture is directly due to the use of X-ray or radium, and 

 that the beneficial effects of these treatments are in a large meas- 

 ure due to this general modification of the blood quite as much as 

 to any local effect on the neoplasm. 



Indeed I think it is an open question whether it may not be 

 possible to get the good effects of X-ray or radium by treatment 

 applied generally, or to the bones or to the spleen, rather than 

 by prolonged application to the site of the neoplasm itself. This, 

 however, is a matter that need not be discussed in detail in the 

 present connection. It suffices to emphasize the opinion that pro- 

 longed exposure to X-ray or radium at the site of the neoplasm 

 is inadvisable ; and that the danger of local burns, with their 

 characteristically disagreeable and resistent ulcers, may be obvi- 

 ated without sacrificing any of the expected benefits, by shifting 

 the locus of treatment. 



Incidentally, it may be noted as a matter of interest that radium, 

 when introduced into the animal organism, is believed to have 

 something like an elective affinity for the bone marrow, taking 

 permanent lodgment there. So, at least, I have been informed 

 by one of the most experienced workers in this field, who stated 

 this as a matter of fact, quite without reference to any theory as 

 to the action of radium on the blood-forming mechanism. 



It is the commonly accepted opinion of pathologists that, where- 

 as the X-ray exerts a temporarily beneficial effect in the treatment 

 of leukaemias, the effects cease to be cumulative after a time, and 

 ultimately the beneficial response ceases, and the patient goes 



