July 24, 191, 



NATURE 



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conceives of these micro-organisms being adapted 

 to the diseased cells and disseminated along with 

 them by the lymph and blood-streams, a satis- 

 factory explanation of the features of cancer in 

 man is obtained. It is conceivable that there are 

 a number of different micro-organisms which pro- 

 duce these irritating substances, and that there 

 is not a single cause of cancer." The "ubiqui- 

 tous parasite " finds entrance into the body by 

 the openings made in the case of X-ray ulcera- 

 tion, chronic inflammation of all kinds, e.g. of the 

 breast, the ulceration of the tongue following on the 

 irritation of a jagged tooth, catarrh of the 

 stomach due to alcohol or tobacco, ulcer of the 

 stomach, ulcer or catarrh of the large intestine 

 due to constipation ; entrance for the parasite may 

 even be made possible by congenital anomalies, 

 &c, &c. 



Although no evidence is adduced in support 

 of these conceptions, any alternative to such an 

 infective causation, involving as it does the 

 further hypothesis of symbiosis of the parasite 

 and the cancer-cell, is ruled out of court by Czerny. 

 He says : " On account of the numerous errors 

 made in the past, many pathologists have given 

 up the search for a cancer parasite, and content 

 themselves with some ingenious cellular theory, 

 which suffices for instruction, but does not yield 

 actual practical applications." Surely no prac- 

 tical application can yet be made of the infective 

 hypothesis of the cause of cancer, although the 

 taking of quite fallacious cancer censuses has 

 been based upon it. The importance actual 

 observation has given to chronic irritation has 

 long since justified legislative measures for the 

 protection of workers engaged in various occupa- 

 tions from enhanced liability to the disease. 



Czerny reviews optimistically recent attempts 

 to influence the growth of tumours by radium, 

 X-rays, fulguration and chemical means, sera, 

 &c, but his forty years' personal experience as 

 a distinguished surgeon of international fame adds 

 greater weight to his important announcement : 

 " Unfortunately, the first beginnings of cancer are 

 often so insidious that they do not attract the 

 attention even of the patient himself, who first 

 seeks medical advice when ulceration, a palpable 

 tumour, pain — that faithful guardian of health — 

 long-lasting digestive troubles, wasting, and bad 

 looks warn him. Nevertheless, early diagnosis 

 and removal of a condition long remaining local- 

 ised, is the best means of restoring to complete 

 health and avoiding the sad chain of consequences 

 of the advancing disease. Therefore, with the 

 assistance of anaesthesia and asepsis the surgeon 

 has gradually sought out tumours in all organs 

 of the body, even in the brain and spinal cord, and 

 removed them. Naturally cancer comes under 

 operation later, and therefore in less favour- 

 able circumstances the more inaccessible its situa- 

 tion. If success for tumours of the brain and 

 spinal cord is rarer, still in the case of the skin 

 So-90 per cent, of cures can be depended upon. 

 Complete cure in the case of the breast is obtained 

 in 40 per cent., i.e. living and controlled five years 

 NO. 2282, VOL. 91] 



after operation. For the stomach and intestine, 

 20-30 per cent, of success can be calculated on." 

 Since the first vague statements of the cure of 

 transplanted cancer in mice by chemical means 

 were made there has been a rising flood of similar 

 announcements in scientific journals. According 

 to the experience of the writer the greater number 

 of these communications had better never have 

 been published. The results claimed as cures 

 have been for the most part nothing of the kind, 

 but due to errors, sometimes arising in the pro- 

 perties of the tumour unknown to the "curer," 

 at other times due to the observer being unaware 

 of the behaviour of transplanted tumours in 

 general and of the behaviour of a particular tumour 

 obtained from some other laboratory, the observer 

 being inexperienced both of how to obtain uni- 

 form growth and of the numerous fallacies he 

 has failed to avoid. Shots in the dark, by those 

 inexperienced in the growth both of experimental 

 and natural tumours in animals, are, however, to 

 be expected until more is known of the nature, 

 chemistry, and metabolism of cancer, and certainty 

 is attained as to whether or not it is an infective 

 disease. But it would be a grave misfortune if 

 the increasing flood of alleged cures of trans- 

 planted cancer in animals led to an augmentation 

 of the number of persons who, disdaining or fearing 

 surgical advice and treatment, prefer " treatment " 

 by some other less efficacious or even useless 

 method, or by some of the new chemical prepara- 

 tions already prematurely placed upon the market. 

 E. F. Bashford. 



PLANKTOLOGY ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



THE school of marine planktologists at the 

 University of California and the biological 

 station of La Jolla (San Diego) is doing notable 

 work on the Pacific under the expert guidance of 

 Profs. Ritter and Kofoid. We now welcome a 

 recent contribution on the classification and vertical 

 distribution of the Chaetognatha of the San Diego 

 region, by Ellis L. Michael (University of Cali- 

 fornia Publications in Zoology, vol. viii., no. 3). 

 To begin with, the material is evidently very 

 abundant. The locality in question shows seven 

 out of the eighteen valid species of Sagitta, two of 

 the three species of Eukrohnia, and one . of the 

 two species of Spadella. The author has done 

 good work in redescribing and elucidating those 

 species, and is to be congratulated on having failed 

 to discover any new ones. The work has been 

 confined to a comparatively small area, but it is 

 evident that no pains have been spared to make 

 it complete. 



The author states: "We are convinced that 

 direction and velocity of currents, temperature and 

 salinity of water, wind, clouds, fog, rain, light 

 and darkness all affect the distribution of plankton 

 even wifhin a very small area. The influence of 

 all these conditions must be known to solve any 

 problem concerning the quantitative distribution 

 of plankton." All these influences have been very 

 fully investigated. 



