ON NEURAL EXCRETION 79 



in which latter case the cause may be called dynamic, and 

 not material. 



In this way we shall realise that the several observations 

 and conclusions of those engaged in the work of research 

 in this obscure department of pathological investigation 

 are entitled to the greatest respect, inasmuch as each and 

 all engaged in making them have been giving a true 

 picture of their impressions and conceptions of what they 

 have seen, and have each and all described an actual 

 instance or instances of the many characters which cancer- 

 ous disease assumes, according to the nature of the struc- 

 ture or structures chosen or attacked by it. The recondite 

 theories which in these modern times have been advanced 

 in explanation of its etiology and genesis, as well as its 

 progress, will to some extent, we hope, be beneficially 

 influenced by information obtainable along somewhat dif- 

 ferent lines, lines which, we claim, flow from the belief 

 that the physiology of a structure, or of the whole organ- 

 ism, is the main determining influence in the shaping of 

 its pathology in each and every diseased condition ; altered 

 structure, leading to altered function, in unbroken and 

 graduated continuity, from the benign to the malign, from 

 the ephemeral to the persistent, and from the slight to the 

 fatal. The earliest possible pathological moment, with 

 what it displays of pathological change in structure and 

 function, must, therefore, be laid hold of, in order that 

 the true etiological factors may be apprehended, their lethal 

 work prevented, and effectual barriers raised against their 

 further progress. In this way, we may hope, by a union 

 of the physiological and pathological forces scouring this 

 field of research, and the consequent strength derivable 

 from united action in a common work, to obtain a clue to 

 the discovery of what cancer, as a morbid entity, really is, 

 as a means of accomplishing its prevention or effecting 

 its cure. It seems to us that here both time and effort 

 are being to some extent dissipated in a comparatively 

 futile attempt to obtain a knowledge of the cause or 

 causes of this most destructive disease, amid the structural 

 ruins left by its agent or agents, after the work of destruc- 

 tion has been accomplished, and the real culprit, or culp- 

 able agency, had disappeared from the scene ; viewed thus, 



