ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



QrpartmrntB : 



Mammals Rf;)(i/.s 



W. T. HoRNADAV. Raymond L. Ditmaks 



Birds 

 C. William Bkebe. 

 Lee S. Cbandali,. 



Aguarittm 



H. TOWNSESI 

 VVMONI) C. Osi 



Publislled bi-monthly at the OtBcc of the Society, 

 11 Wall Street, New York City. 



Yearly by Mail, $1,00. 



MAILED FREli TO MEMBERS, 



Copyright, I'Jll,. by the New York Zooloyu-al Society. 



Each author is responsible for the scientific accuracy 



and the proof reading of his contribution, 



Elwix K, Samk.hn. Kilitor 



Vol, XVII, No. 2. 



MARCH, 1911 



FISH CANCER INVESTIGATION, 



There is no disease more dreaded by human- 

 ity than cancer. In recent years large amounts 

 of money have been devoted to the study of 

 this disease in special laboratories founded for 

 the purpose, and to stimulate research in the 

 medical institutions already established. Thus 

 far all efforts to discover the cause of the dis- 

 ease or to find some infallible specific for its 

 cure have been without avail. 



Theories as to the cause of cancer have been 

 numerous — their very numbers indicating their 

 inadequacy. In these the cause has been re- 

 ferred to bacteria and other parasitic unicellu- 

 lar organisms of both plant and animal nature, 

 to embryonic cells caught up by growth in other 

 tissues and delayed in development, to a dis- 

 cordant pernicious growth of epithelial tissues, 

 etc., etc. But thus far none of these has 

 proved satisfactory. It is true that bacteria 

 and other unicellular organisms have some- 

 times been found in cancerous growths, but ef- 

 forts to connect them with the disease in the 

 human have been unsuccessful. 



In view of so much fruitless investigation, 

 it would not be strange if those engaged in it 

 had wearied of the search. However, the diffi- 

 culties and reverses seem only to have stimu- 

 lated them to renewed effort, and never lias 

 there been such an active research into the 

 causes and treatment of any disease as exists 

 today in regard to cancer. 



l'"ailing to find the cause of cancer in man 

 himself, investigators have taken u]) the study 

 of the disease in lower animals, in tlie hope of 

 finding there the clue for which thcv seek. 

 Cancer is known to occur in other mammals, 



in birds and in fishes. Similar growths have 

 even been described in j)lants, though whether 

 tiiese may be attributable to a similar cause is 

 somewhat doubtful. 



Very recently Dr. Peyton Rous, of Rocke- 

 feller Institute, and Dr. Leo Loeb, of St. Louis, 

 seem to have shown conclusively that certain 

 cancers found in chickens are due to bacteria. 

 According to newspaper reports of the work yi 

 Dr. H. R, Gaylord on fish cancer, not yet pub- 

 lislied in full, fish cancer also appears to be 

 due to bacterial action, though this does not 

 seem to have been positively proved, nor has 

 tlic germ been discovered. 



On account of the suggestion contained in 

 the newspaper accounts, that fish cancer might 

 be transmissible to higher animals, the pre- 

 liminary account of Dr. Gaylord's work has 

 attracted much attention and has served to 

 cause consider.ible excitement and apprehen- 

 sion. 



It is well known that certain kinds of fishes, 

 particularly the salmons and the trouts, when 

 reared artificially in hatcheries, often develop 

 tumorous conditions of certain glands of the 

 throat known as the thyroid glands; the con- 

 dition being commonly called fish goitre. About 

 four years ago. Dr. Marine and Dr. Lenhart, 

 of the jNIedical Laboratory of Western Reserve 

 University, published in connection with the 

 Pennsylvania State Fish Commission, the re- 

 sults of extended experiments upon this fish dis- 

 ease, in which tliey showed that the fish thyroid 

 disease is similar in general character to goi- 

 tre in the human being. This was proved not 

 only by the histological condition of the diseased 

 gland, but also by the response to the iodine 

 treatment, which has been so successful in cases 

 of human goitre. At the same time thcv did 

 not deny the posibility that actual cancer might 

 develop in connection with the diseased tissues 

 of the thyroid gland. 



If the preliminary newspaper accounts of 

 Dr. Gaylord's work are accurate. Dr. Gaylord 

 believes that there is no dividing line between 

 this goiterous condition of the fish and true can- 

 cer of the thyroid. Or, in other words, the 

 two are mild and pernicious phases of the same 

 disease. Dr. Gaylord has been unable to prove 

 that the disease is infectious, although he made 

 experiments in an attem])t to discover this 

 ])oint. He apparently believes that some mi- 

 cro-organism is responsible for the spread of 

 the disease, and attempted to infect higher ani- 

 mals, dogs and rats, by giving them to drink 

 water in which the scrapings from the fish t.mks 

 had been jilaced. Some of tliese ;iiimals. in the 



