NATURE 
THURSDAY, MAY 7 e114. 
CANCER. 
(1) The Pathology of Growth: Tumours. By Dr. 
C. :Pi-Wviiess-Pp. xii +238.8boudon: Con- 
stable and Co., Ltd., 1913.) Price 1os. 6d. net. 
(2) Researches into Induced: Cell-reproduction and 
Cancer, and other Papers. Vol. iii. By H. C. 
Ross, J. W. Cropper, E..H. Ross, H. Bayon, 
W. Jj. Atkinson. Butterfield, E. Jennings, 
and S. R. Moulgavkar. .The John Howard 
McFadden Researches. Pp. 149+xvii plates. 
(London: John Murray, 1913.) Price 5s. net. 
(1) HIS- volume seems to promise a series 
on the pathology of growth, under the 
editorship of Prof. A. E. Boycott. The venture 
is a welcome one showing that the move towards 
a closer union between pathology and physiology 
is making progress. Pathology is still so often 
restricted to, or actually confounded with, mere 
morbid anatomy that the wider recognition of 
disturbance of function-——in the case of this volume 
of abnormality of growth—as a department of 
physiology proper, can only contribute both to a 
more wide-visioned outlook on the processes of 
disease, and also equally to a more critical atti- 
tude on the part of those whose sphere of activity 
proper is the investigation of disease, and not of 
normal function or structure. 
For the volume as a whole we have nothing 
but praise, although in. one relating to the patho- 
logy of growth it seems that taking up about 
half of it with the classification and histological 
structure of tumours is a liberal allowance. Es- 
pecially the space devoted to Hodgkin’s disease 
may, with profit, be omitted in future editions, 
since it is doubtful whether it is rightly included 
in a discussion of tumours proper. Since also 
the book is intended for students, it appears that 
some of this space might with profit have been 
yielded to the description of naked-eye appear- 
ances. 
The chapters on growth, hypertrophy, atrophy, 
regeneration, and kindred topics are well and 
lucidly written. The inclusion in a text-book of 
pathology of a full discussion of the statistics of 
cancer is a welcome innovation, to which even 
more space might have been spared from classi- 
fication, since the full significance of the statis- 
tical facts can only be brought out by giving 
detailed consideration to the anatomical or site 
distribution of cancer. Had this been done, the 
author would scarcely have committed himself 
to the general statement that cancer is increas- 
235 
General Register Office show that the question 
of the increase of cancer exists only for certain 
parts of the body, but not for others. 
The book is, notwithstanding these criticisms, 
a valuable one for the student and for all who 
wish to have an objective review of what morbid 
anatomy and histology, experiment, and statistics 
have yielded together in the effort to elucidate 
cancer, 
(2) The modest short title of this volume— 
“Researches into Induced Cell Proliferation and 
Cancer ”—and, indeed, also the full title, do not . 
convey adequately the enormously wide scope of 
the fourteen original papers which form its con- 
tents. The word “cancer” occurs in the title of 
one paper only: “Epithelial cell proliferation”; 
“The cell division of leucocytes demonstrated ”’ ; 
“Fibro-adenomatous nodules induced de novo” ; 
“Cell division figures induced in human blood 
platelets”; “Treatment of wounds”; also-éach 
occur once, and presumably these are the papers 
for which it is claimed that ‘‘ The Howard Mcfad- 
den Researches” into induced cell proliferation 
bear upon cancer. The other eight papers deal 
with scarlet fever, measles, and syphilis, the cul- 
tivation of trypanosomes, a parasite of the earth- 
worm, and the nature of ‘ Kurloff’s bodies ” 
found in the leucocytes of guinea-pigs, etc. 
Each subject taken up is a big one. The extent 
and diversity of the ground covered in this small 
volume of 149 pages will not cause cavil at its’ 
contents being described as researches, on the 
part of anyone not having precise knowledge of 
any of the many subjects of which it treats. In- 
deed, they may well marvel at the versatility 
displayed and the exact statements made about 
pitch, cancer, the classification and nomenclature 
of the “protozoal parasite in syphilis,” and the 
division of polymorphonuclear leucocytes and of 
blood platelets. As regards syphilis, those who 
were present at the last meeting of the Patho- 
logical Society of Great Britain will recall the 
destructive criticism passed upon very similar 
claims regarding what was put forward as the life 
cycle of the cause of syphilis. The statements 
regarding the parasitic nature of Kurloff’s bodies 
have not been confirmed by a recent German 
worker. 
As regards cancer, the more critical reader will 
ask what leucocytes and blood plates have to do 
with it, and if any cancerous growth has been 
known ever to consist of blood platelets or poly- 
morphonuclear leucocytes. _When the statement 
is made that Khangri cancer “affects the women ”’ 
in Cashmere, he will wonder why the men have 
been forgotten. When it is stated that the efforts 
ing, since the last three annual reports of the ; made in the past to explain that “cancerous tissue 
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