56 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



life might be looked on as the result of over-stimulated 

 activities in cases which under other conditions might 

 have been the subjects of gigantism. Any glandular 

 secretion may very conceivably have abnormal local 

 effects. But, if early or late hyper-pituitarism has relation 

 to sarcomas, hypo-pituitarism may equally well result 

 at any time of life in under-inhibition of epithelium, a 

 state, according to the theory here supported, which 

 seems a necessary preliminary to cancer. 



While I offer these views with the greatest diffidence, 

 I may remark that though their acceptance might lead to 

 further discoveries, and even to cure, their rejection would 

 by no means invalidate my conclusions as to the relations 

 of the two great tissues concerned. A breakdown of one 

 or the other may conceivably be determined by any dis- 

 order of one or more of the endocrine glands. Such sug- 

 gestions may, at any rate, lead to definite observations of 

 the pituitary being made in fatal cases of malignancy, a 

 thing, so far as I know, which has not been done. If 

 any changes in it could be detected, they might offer a 

 rational basis for therapeutics, though it is highly probable 

 that a morbid secretion without visible change might be 

 responsible for invasive tissues. 



To put aside such speculations for a moment, and return 

 to the general aspect of the problem, it must be owned that 

 the confusion in theory is more than equalled by that in 

 experimental therapeutics. Outside of surgery, which with 

 radiology seems to present the patient with his only chance 

 of prolonged life, most attempts at cure appear quackery, or 

 empiricism run mad. Preparations of all kinds of tissues 

 have been injected, and the results discredit optimism 

 itself. Yet if it is agreed that the fundamental principles 

 of life are inter-organic stimulation and inhibition, and that 



