416 APPENDIX C 



therefore, to have such moles removed if they are in a situation 

 where they are liable to be rubbed or injured. It has been 

 found, also, that cancer frequently develops in the scar of an 

 old burn, or in places where there is a chronic ulcer, as on the 

 lip or tongue or leg, and care should be taken to see that such 

 ulcers are healed as quickly as possible. 



Ulcers on the tongue and cheek frequently follow scratching 

 from a poor filling or from the sharp point of a decayed tooth, 

 and a dentist should be consulted if such an ulcer does not 

 heal within a few days, so that the filling may be properly 

 replaced or the point of the tooth hied off. Smokers should 

 be particularly careful about any sore on the lip or tongue ; 

 these are commonly found in those who use a pipe or cigars 

 and smoke so that the tissue is burned by the hot stem of the 

 pipe or at the point where the hot cigar smoke strikes, thus 

 keeping up a chronic irritation. For this reason, cancer of 

 the lip and tongue, while very common in men, is almost never 

 seen in women. 



The beginning of an internal cancer is much more difficult to 

 determine, because small tumors just as they start cannot be 

 discovered except by accident ; but it has been found that they 

 almost always begin in some injury ; for instance, ulcer of the 

 stomach is a common cause of cancer, since the ulcers turn into 

 cancers if they are not cured by proper medical or surgical 

 treatment. So, too, cancers of the lower bowel are frequently 

 preceded by chronic inflammation, and persons suffering from 

 chronic dysentery, ulceration of the bowel, or bleeding piles, 

 should consult a physician to see that these troubles are cured 

 promptly and do not develop into cancer. 



Cancer of the breast in women frequently follows chronic 

 inflammation, and is not caused by a blow, as is frequently 

 thought. Any woman who notices a lump in the breast should 

 at once consult a physician. It is very much better to be told 

 that the thing is harmless and need not be removed, than to 

 wait too long, only to find that it has already developed into a 

 cancer. 



