PRODUCTION OF ALKALOID 365 



of tissues occurs to some extent every month until 

 the climacteric, when great involution takes place. It 

 is during this latter period that the onset of carcinoma 

 is favoured. It is a remarkable thing that cancer 

 almost only occurs in these parts in parous women, 

 whereas in nulliparous women they are comparatively 

 free. We do not think we are going too far in suggest- 

 ing that in parous women, when the ducts of the glands of 

 the breast and uterus have been so to speak opened 

 up, access is now afforded to the organisms of decom- 

 position and putrefaction. In nulliparous women, when 

 these organs have remained functionless, the ducts of 

 their glands are more likely to be closed to invasion 

 from without. 



In any site, however, the products of katabolism 

 may determine the age-incidence of carcinoma. 



One cannot assert that the alkaloid choline, or 

 cadaverine either, are only produced in a damaged 

 site by the action of putrefactive organisms.. It was 

 owing to decomposition by putrefaction of extracts 

 of dead tissues and globin that we were enabled to 

 obtain augmented asymmetrical cell-divisions with these 

 alkaloids, but it is possible that these alkaloids or 

 others equally effective may be produced by other 

 agencies; and if so, provided the contention is correct 

 that the alkaloids help to cause carcinoma, "other 

 agencies besides putrefactive organisms may cause the 

 disease. The point is an important one in view of 

 the controversy as to whether cancer is a "parasitic" 

 disease. In any case these alkaloids can be produced 

 by more than one class of organisms, and we have 



