CHAPTER IX 



THE ADOPTION OF THE IN-VITRO METHOD FOR CANCER 



RESEARCH THE EXCITATION OF LEUCOCYTES 



CAUSED BY CANCER PLASMA FACTS KNOWN 



ABOUT CANCER THE AGE INCIDENCE; VITALITY; 



DEATH; METASTASES; CHRONIC IRRITATION THE 

 POSSIBLE CAUSES OF CELL-PROLIFERATION DIS- 

 CUSSED. 



IN August, 1908, on an occasion when the excitation 

 of leucocytes by atropine was being demonstrated to 

 one of us (C. J. M.) he remarked that he had often 

 enough thought that patients dying from cancer ex- 

 hibited symptoms resembling those of poisoning by 

 some alkaloids, and he suggested that an investigation 

 might be made by means of the in-vitro method to 

 try to find out whether there existed in the blood 

 of cancer patients any substance of an alkaloidal 

 character which might be responsible for these 

 symptoms. This suggestion, based on bed-side obser- 

 vation, taken in conjunction w r ith the fact that a group 

 of chemical agents existed which were capable of 

 exciting human cells, warranted a research in this 

 direction, for if such a substance existed in the blood 

 of these patients it was felt that either it might have 



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