July 27, 1905J 



NA TURE 



297 



except that, as recently stated by Mr. Moore {Brit. 

 Med. Journ., July 8, p. 104), leucocytes or white blood 

 cells are sometimes found within the body of the cancer 

 cells, with which they appear to be undergoing con- 

 jugation. 



Messrs, Farmer, Moore, and Walker suggest that 

 it is possible that the malignant elements are the 

 outcome of a phylogenetic reversion, but this would not 

 necessarily explain the invasiveness of cancer. In 

 spite of recent work, much remains to be done and to 

 be explained before we shall be in a position clearly to 

 understand the cancer process. 



With regard to the causes which lead to the pro- 

 duction of the gametoid cells in cancer, it has been 

 found that in plants various stimuli will rapidly bring 

 about heterotype mitosis, and, given the proper 

 stimulus, probably any somatic cell may become 

 changed into this type. The connection between 

 chronic irritation and cancer has long been recog- 

 nised, but the manner in which this factor acts to 

 produce cancer has not been understood ; but in the 

 light of the foregoing, it may be regarded as one of 

 the stimuli which may bring about heterotype mitosis 

 and reduction division. 



Does recent work hold out a prospect of the dis- 

 covery of a curative agent for cancer? It cannot be 

 said that our hopes in this direction have been materi- 

 ally increased as yet. At present almost the only hope 

 of cure lies in early and radical operation, and it is of 

 the g^reatest moment that the public should realise 

 the importance of early treatment, and that no time 

 should be lost in seeking advice. In superficial 

 cancers, the X-rays and radium emanations seem to 

 effect a cure by causing a retrogression or a necrosis 

 of the cancer elements. Possibly the gametoid tissue 

 of the cancer is more vulnerable than the somatic cells, 

 and hence the former may be caused to degenerate or 

 be destroyed without materially injuring the latter, but 

 probably the rays cause proliferation of the connective 

 tissue elements of the growth and interfere with its 

 nutrition. Is it possible that the stimulus of these rays 

 may also act like fertilisation, and causes the game- 

 toid once more to revert to somatic cells, which then 

 being of the nature of a foreign body are partly re- 

 moved and partly remain inert? 



Clowes and Gaylord (Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital, April, 1905) have observed that cancer in 

 mice occasionally undergoes spontaneous retrogression 

 and cure, and the same occurs, but, unfortunately, 

 only too rarely, in human cancer. Clowes found that 

 the blood serum of the mice in which this spontaneous 

 cure had occurred exerted a marked curative action 

 on other mice suffering from the disease. This 

 suggests the possibility that work of a similar nature 

 may eventually lead to the discovery of a means of 

 treating human cancer, but the probability is small, 

 for it is extremely unlikely that the serum of any 

 animal would have the slightest effect on the human 

 being. A spontaneously cured human being would 

 almost certainly have to provide the serum !^ 



R. T. Hewlett. 



BRITISH FRUIT GROWING. 

 T^HE report to the Board of Agriculture of the 

 -'■ departmental committee appointed to consider 

 what measures can be taken for the promotion and 

 encouragement of fruit culture in these islands has 

 been issued. The commissioners recommend that a 

 special department should be formed to deal with 

 matters relating to the fruit industry, and that this 

 department should be subdivided into (a) a bureau of 

 information ; (b) an experimental fruit farm. The 

 desirability of encouraging the practice of gardening 



NO. 1865, VOL 72I 



in schools in the rural districts is also alluded to, and 

 this recommendation will be generally concurred in. 

 Legal questions connected with the tenancy and 

 rating of land used in fruit culture are of cardinal 

 importance, as also are those relating to the carriage 

 of fruit by rail and to the alleged unfair treatment by 

 the companies of the home-grower as compared with 

 his foreign competitor. The necessity of further 

 market accommodation is likewise insisted on. 



These are all matters of importance, but they do 

 not cover the whole of the ground. We find no 

 reference in the report before us of the influence 

 of the weather on the fruit crops, and yet this is a 

 factor the potency of which outweighs all others. In 

 the case of hardy fruits, not grown under glass, the 

 fruit grower is in the main powerless to contend 

 against adverse conditions. The tabulated reports 

 from every county in the British Islands, which have 

 been published annually for the last forty or fifty 

 years in the Gardeners' Chronicle, bear ample testi- 

 mony to this. Spring frosts when the trees are in 

 blossom occur more or less every year, and when 

 they happen to be severe, as they were this year, the 

 resiafts are disastrous. The reports from the cherry- 

 growing districts of Kent this year show remarkable 

 diversity of yield from farms in the same neighbour- 

 hood, a diversity due presumably to differences of 

 shelter and aspect. It is difficult to see how the 

 grower can protect himself from these adverse con- 

 ditions. Experimental farms such as are rcconi- 

 mended by the commission, and of which one is in 

 operation at Woburn under the auspices of the Duke 

 of Bedford, are for the most part of local value only ; 

 the lessons they teach may not be applicable in the 

 next parish where the conditions are different. 



Can nothing, therefore, be done? We should be 

 sorry to assent to such a proposition. We believe 

 that something could be done. But then arises the 

 question whether, in the face of the vast importations 

 first from the American continent, and when supplies 

 from that quarter are exhausted, from Tasmania and 

 Australia, any steps which the British grower could 

 take would be of any use, commercially speaking? 

 .^gain, no competition on the part of the home-grower 

 is possible with the banana imports from the Canaries 

 and the West Indian islands, which are assuming 

 such vast proportions, or with the still larger import- 

 ations of oranges. The case is different when what 

 are termed soft fruits are concerned. We can hold 

 our own with strawberries, raspberries, and currants, 

 whilst gooseberries, especially when picked in a green 

 condition, are among the most profitable crops that 

 a farmer or even a cottager can grow. Spring frosts 

 do them relatively little harm, so that a crop of some 

 sort can generally be relied on. 



From a commercial standpoint, when we talk of 

 our home fruit-crops we mean apples or plums, and 

 reverting to the subject of spring frosts we may well 

 inquire whether it is not possible for our experts to 

 raise breeds which shall be immune from mjury. 

 Our American cousins hoped for great things by the 

 introduction of Russian apples, and some were tried 

 here also, but the results were not encouraging, as 

 the quality of the fruit was so indifferent that the 

 experiment was not continued. Another lesson from 

 the same source seems more promising. When a few 

 vears ago a " big freeze " occurred in Florida, the 

 orange plantations suffered exceedingly. What did 

 our friends do? Did they abuse the fickleness of their 

 climate and take their misfortunes with the resig- 

 nation of the fatalists? Not so. They set to work 

 without loss of time to raise by means of cross-breed- 

 ing a hardv varietv, and they have at least made a 

 good beginning. So, too, have our friends the 



