THE NOK-CO^TAGIOUS DISEASES. 209 



nerve-fibers, or may cause enlargement of the heart, 

 and be followed by degenerative changes, etc. None 

 of these conditions often occur, yet they should be con- 

 sidered of sufficient importance for the removal of be- 

 nign tumors. Medical writers have never given the 

 cause of tumors, or the causes from different investi- 

 gators are but different theories, varying in probability 

 and ingenuity. 



Cancer, 



A prominent medical writer said recently: "The 

 theory of germ-causation, never generally accepted, has 

 been almost entirely abandoned. The view most gen- 

 erally entertained at this time is that cancer is the re- 

 sult of rapid growth of the cells of the basement mem- 

 brane, due to septic blood." Basement membrane is a 

 thin layer of flattened, almost indistinguishable cells, 

 just beneath the surface of the mucous membrane. It 

 also forms one of the layers of the skin, and dips down 

 into the little glands of the skin, stomach, etc. 



"Cancer is most apt to occur in an organ where septic 

 blood has produced chronic congestion or inflammation, 

 and nerve-control has become partially lost through 

 gradual progressive paralysis. In other words it is a 

 degenerative change. The nutrition and function of 

 the organ involved have escaped the control of the 

 nerves, and the cells of the part multiply energetically 

 and lawlessly, according to their nature. Eapid multi- 

 plication of tissue-cells always means a diminution of 

 vitality in each individual cell. 



"In health the nerve-supply imposes cell-function, 



14 



