44 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



irritation, epithelial overgrowth, attempts at repair, which 

 in mild cases succeed and in severe ones fail disastrously, 

 leaving the skin in epithelial anarchy. It is cracked and 

 fissured in every direction, heaped up in one place and 

 broken down in another, until it becomes a picture of dis- 

 order rarely seen even in the domain of dermatology. Such 

 an exhibition of ineffective energy spent at the surface in 

 vain efforts at repair makes it less surprising that what we 

 may call the potential of the deep epithelial layers of the epi- 

 dermis becomes abnormally kinetic. It may be said that the 

 cells of that layer grow malignant because they find existence 

 impossible in their normal position. It seems certain that 

 in large doses the effect of the rays on connective tissue is 

 depressing : they are, at any rate, totally unable at the last 

 to resist, either by mechanical or chemical means, the push 

 of the escaping epithelium. It is stated by Darier and 

 Wolbarth that in X-ray dermatitis there is hypertrophy of 

 the epidermis, and pronounced degeneration of the corium, 

 the most marked result being, as I anticipated before 

 I was aware of the actual facts, the rarefaction of the sub- 

 epidermal portion. I may also mention the work of 

 Lazarus-Barlow and his co-workers at the Middlesex 

 Hospital. He points out that in certain conditions the 

 influence of radium rays is one of stimulation. In experi- 

 ments on rats, which produced what can only be described 

 as squamous-cell cancer, it is especially to be noted that 

 there was degeneration of the subjacent connective tissue, 

 which even extended to bone and cartilage. Obviously 

 radium was here used in time quantities, which carried 

 stimulation into degeneration. These changes are, I may 

 perhaps venture to say, only such as could have been pre- 

 dicted, and I did in fact predict them before being aware 

 of his results. The same can be said of those obtained 



