IATUR LE: 397 
THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 10914. 
STUDIES IN CANCER. AND ALLIED 
SUBJECTS. 
Studies in Cancer and Allied Subjects. Vol. i., 
The Study of Experimental Cancer: a Review. 
By Dr. W. H. Woglom. Pp. xi+288. . Vol. 
li., Pathology. Pp. vi+267. Vol. ii., From 
the Departments of Zoology, Surgery, Clinical 
Pathology, and Biological Chemistry. Pp. 
ix +308. Conducted under the George Crocker 
Special Research Fund at Columbia University. 
(New York: Columbia University Press. 
1913.) Price 5 dollars net each volume. 
OTH the late Mr. George Crocker and his 
wife are reported to have died of cancer, 
and it may be recalled that an action was brought 
against Mr. Crocker for the recovery of a larger 
fee than had originally been agreed on for the 
surgical treatment of his wife. Thus, perhaps, 
it came about that Mr. Crocker left property to 
Columbia University which on partial realisation 
yielded somewhere about 300,000]. When he 
made his first donation for the investigation of 
cancer it was decided by those who had the matter 
in hand that, until a form of organisation was 
decided on, the money could best be expended by 
_ making grants to special workers in the depart- 
ments of anatomy, zoology, surgery, pathology, 
and biological chemistry of Columbia University 
and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
New York. 
Leaving vol. i., which is a monograph of xi+ 
288 pp., by Dr. W. H. Woglom, for special 
reference later, the outcome has been the publica- 
tion of sixty-six papers, which are collected in 
vols. ii. and ui. Of these papers twelve have not 
been published before, two are reprinted with ex- 
pansion, and the rest are merely reprinted. Use- 
ful introductions are supplied to the papers by the 
professors in several departments (notably for 
zoology by Calkins, pathology by MacCallum, and 
bio-chemistry by Gies). In these introductions 
are set forth the points of view from which work 
has been directed. It is impossible to review the 
separate papers which have interest mainly for 
those actually engaged in similar work, who will 
be glad to have the papers in collected form. 
Calkins and his fellow-workers have thrown 
their main strength in the direction of studying 
the phenomena of growth. He claims nothing 
could be more clearly demonstrated than the need 
for “team work,” or the joint activity of patho- 
logist, chemist, surgeon, clinician, biologist, from 
the results of two years’ work. The underlying 
biological principle activating the researches on 
growth, and binding them into a consistent whole, 
NO,. 2429; VOL.. 93 | 
was for Calkins ‘the physiological balance with 
self-regulation perfect in normal conditions 
thrown out of adjustment in cancer.” Experi- 
ments were done on the effect of mutilating uni- 
cellular organisms. The thyroid and thymus 
glands were removed from rats, in order to study 
any possible consequences on the growth of 
tumours. The effects of chemical and mechanical 
irritation on mammalian tissues were studied, and 
extracts of glands injected with a view of observ- 
ing any stimulating or inhibitive effects on the 
growth ‘of transplanted tumours. Except the 
work on Paramcecium and Uronychia by Calkins 
himself, the experiments appear to have been con- 
ducted on too small a scale, and therefore it is 
not surprising they are for the most part stated to 
be negative or inconclusive and requiring expan- 
sion. They were admittedly conducted with a 
view to finding a point of attack, and it would be 
unfair to offer any criticism. 
MacCallum’s introduction is an interesting and 
very instructive review of present knowledge from 
the point of view that it is, perhaps, the poverty 
of our knowledge as to the factors which influence 
the energy of growth, and, indeed, growth in 
general, which is responsible for our inability to 
arrive at a satisfactory explanation of the develop- 
ment of tumours. 
“The intolerance of the body 'for the dis- 
arrangement of its tissues is quite as wonderful 
as the growth of tumours and its study as illumin- 
atiOgse ‘““We must determine the causes of 
the growth of cells in general and the factors 
which underlie the increase in the energy of their 
growth as well as those which limit and hold it in 
check and render it practically impossible for 
normal tissue to continue its growth when dis- 
placed from its normal relations, or when in ex- 
cess of the amount necessary for the body’s needs. 
One side of this problem seems quite as important 
as the other; for in the development of an in- 
vasive tumour, we have the subversion of the 
ordinary laws which we assume to govern the 
proportions and proper relations of tissue 
growth.” 
These sentences embody points of view to 
which many will readily subscribe. It is unfor- 
tunate that the worker on the reactions leading to 
resistance to the growth of cancer and also of 
normal tissue (as the immunity reactions may be 
more correctly described), and who contributes 
no fewer than fourteen articles out of twenty- 
seven in vol. ii., had not diverted some of this 
industry to acquiring an accurate knowledge of 
the work of others so as to present their views 
correctly and himself avoid possible pitfalls in ex- 
perimentation. His presentations of Ehrlich’s 
atreptic or starvation theory of immunity have 
already called forth a vigorous protest on the part 
R 
