December 23, 1909] 



NA TURE 



219 



roots alongside ; the difference in the weights merely repre- 

 sents the error of random sampling when numbers are 

 small. 



Prof. Bottomley is very scornful over my suggestion 

 that the nutrient salts in the bacterial culture may have 

 brought about an increase in yield, but if it is easy to 

 represent their quantity as small to the verge of ridicule, 

 exactly the same argument might be turned against the 

 ■bacteria he added. No factor should be neglected to 

 equalise the conditions of the controls and the treated 

 plots. I can give Prof. Bottomley examples in which the 

 nutrient salts accompanying a bacterial inoculation have 

 not been negligible in their effects. 



I put my questions to Prof. Bottomley because he does 

 not seem to recognise how large an experimental error he 

 must expect ; the conclusions he reaches are of such 

 importance as to demand a more serious body of evidence 

 than the specially selected cases he has put before us. 



A. D. Hall. 



The Rothamsted Experimental Station, December 13.. 



Positions of Birds' Nests in Hedges. 



Wh.\t has puzzled Lieut. -Colonel Walsh (Nature, 

 December 16) may be referred to the law of protective 

 devices on th» part of birds, and I may say that his facts 

 have been long familiar to other field naturalists and 

 myself. I do not think that the direction north-south 

 or east-west has anything to do with the selection of tlie 

 nest site. If, at this season of the year, hedges are ex- 

 amined, even very careful " bird boys " and men will be 

 astonished at a much larger number of nests than they 

 observed in summer. If an explored hedge skirts on one 

 side a public road, an " occupation " road, or right-of-way 

 paths, it will be generally found that the nests are on the 

 field side of the hedge, and, therefore, when looked for 

 from the other side, much more difficult to discover than 

 if they were placed on the road or pathway side. In cases 

 where the hedge divides a field from a plantation, the nests 

 are invariably on the plantation side. I knew that very 

 well when I was a boy " nester," and was struck with 

 it only a few days ago on examining a long stretch of 

 hedge-fencing from a semi-public road near my home. 

 However, there may be some esoteric law of bird-life in 

 what Lieut.-Colonel Walsh says. Certainly his facts are 

 most interesting. 



G. W. Murdoch. 



Woodbine House, Bcntham, Yorkshire, 

 December 17. 



RADIVM AND CANCER. 



' I ' HE Revue generale des Sciences of November 30 

 •'- contains a lengthy and important article by Dr. 

 Louis Wickham on the therapeutic action of radium 

 on cancer, based upon observations made on 1200 

 patients suffering from tumours, half of which are 

 stated to have been malignant. Dr. Wickham him- 

 self has demonstrated recently in London and in Bel- 

 fast the nature of the results he has obtained, and full 

 reports are available in the Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of Medicine and in the British Medical Journal. 

 Therefore there is no need to reproduce the details of 

 the article. The illustrations in the Revue gdnirale 

 des Sciences are even more startling than those which 

 have appeared in the English journals cited. The 

 appearances presented before and after treatment are 

 such as will, almost surely, carry conviction to all 

 laymen, whether healthy or suffering from cancer, 

 that radium can cure the disease. But Dr. Wickham 

 does not write in a corresponding spirit of optimism. 

 Indeed, the only note of triumph is the phrase " It is 

 delightful to think that the whole evolution of radio- 

 therapy (the marvellous discovery of radium by P. 

 Curie and Mme. Curie, the construction of perfected 

 apparatus, therapeutical applications) is almost en- 

 NO. 2095, VOL. 82] 



tirely French." No one may grudge this full measure 

 of recognition to the advances made possible in Paris, 

 on the biological action of radium, by collaboration 

 between laboratories of physics, chemistry, and patho- 

 logy. Not the least measure of praise is due to Dr. 

 Wickham himself, both for his initiative and for his 

 achievements. 



Persons who possess an intimate knowledge of the 

 clinical course and pathology of cancer will be less 

 impressed by the pictures of cured cases than by what 

 Dr. Wicl-^ham writes and what he omits to refer to. 

 The evidence of diagnosis and of microscopical struc- 

 ture is imperfect. The duration of the period of benefit 

 after treatment, as well as the ultimate fate of the 

 patients, are the criteria by which the success of sur- 

 gery is measured ; but the evidence advanced in Paris 

 falls short of good standards in both respects. Dr. 

 Wickham lays no claim to successful treatment of 

 secondary deposits ; he says severe cases ought only 

 to be treated when the surgeon can do nothing, and 

 that it is too early yet to say if radium is the means 

 which ought always to be employed. A warning is 

 given of the necessity for caution in appraising the 

 value of any new treatment, and, above all, of the 

 necessity of avoiding the risk of depriving patients of 

 other treatment which has proved itself superior, 

 especially of surgery. 



The results obtained in Paris have attracted the at- 

 tention of the world. The hopes they have aroused 

 have awakened yet greater expectations for the future, 

 when larger quantities of radium shall be available, 

 and the technique better mastered. Meantime, not- 

 withstanding Dr. Wickham 's caution, the writer con- 

 siders a further note of warning is necessary. All 

 that is claimed for radium is a beneficial action when 

 applied directly to primary growths. Secondary 

 growths inaccessible to direct surgical removal are in- 

 accessible to radium in consequence of the restricted 

 penetration of the rays. Whether or not means will 

 be devised for attacking deep secondary deposits — 

 the very site of which it may be impossible to determine 

 — remains to be seen. The actual injection of emanation 

 solution has met with no success. Nor is the evidence 

 that radiuin has a marked elective action for cancer 

 tissue so strong, at present, as to arouse any great 

 hopes from more efficacious means of flooding the bod\' 

 with radio-activity. In short, radium does not appear 

 to be nature's remedy for cancer, but an empirical 

 remedy with the same shortcomings as all other such 

 in the case of cancer, in that the local condition alone 

 is attacked and the constitutional conditions are un- 

 assailable. 



That the body can generate powers of its own, 

 leading to constitutional changes which enable it to 

 deal effectively with cancer, has been abundantly de- 

 monstrated by recent experiment. In given cir- 

 cumstances, 100 per cent, of animals bearing trans- 

 planted tumours can cure themselves. The facts 

 ascertained show that the natural forces of the body 

 can cope both with secondary deposits and with 

 primary growths. Though this process of natural cure 

 is not, and may not speedily, be elucidated, still, it 

 is not too sanguine an expectation to anticipate that 

 ultimately it will be. The means for checking the 

 ravages of cancer will be found, not by searching the 

 surface of the earth for a vegetable remedy, nor the 

 bowels of the earth for a mineral one, but by follow- 

 ing the definite clue, that in the living body itself 

 forces can be elicited which effectiv-ely combat the 

 disease. Until that goal shall be attained, when surgery 

 fails or is unavailable, relief may be sought, but can- 

 not be guaranteed, by resorting to treatment with 

 radium, the full possibilities of which are not yet 

 developed, even in Paris. E. F. B. 



