THE DISCO\-ERY OF CAXXER IX PLANTS 



53 



Cape Sarichef, Alaska — and some small 

 lights near St. Michael ; but this is a 

 region where the commerce would not at 

 present justify a costly lighting system, 

 particularly as navigation is mostly con- 

 fined to the season of no darkness at 

 night. 



It seems almost incredible to find, only 

 three centuries ago, powerful opposition 

 to the establishment of lighthouses. In 

 1619 a heroic Cornish gentleman, Sir 

 John Killegrew, petitioned the king for 

 permission to build a lighthouse on the 

 Lizard, the southernmost point of Eng- 

 land, where there is now an electric light 

 whose powerful beam sweeps around the 

 horizon. The nautical board to whom 

 was referred the petition advised the 

 king that it was not "necessarie nor con- 

 venient on the Lizard to erect , a light, 

 but, per contra, inconvenient, both in re- 

 gard of pirates, or foreign enemys ; for 

 the light would serve them as a pilot to 

 conduct and lead them to safe places of 

 landinge ; the danger and perill whereof 

 we leave to your majesty's absolute and 

 profound wisdom." Notwithstanding the 

 flattery, James I granted the petition. 



Next the local Cornish people opposed 

 the work, as thus told by Killegrew: 

 "The inabytants neer by think they suflfer 

 by this erection. They affirme I take 

 awav God's grace from them. Their 



EngHsh meaning is that now they shall 

 receive no more benefitt by shipwreck, 

 for this will prevent yt. They have been 

 so long used to repe profitt by the cal- 

 lamyties of the ruin of .shipping, that they 

 clayme it heredytarye, and heavely com- 

 playne on me." The light was, however, 

 completed and the fire kindled, which, 

 wrote Killegrew. "I presume speaks for 

 yt selfe to the most part of Christendom." 

 But it was impossible to obtain, for sup- 

 porting it, the "voluntary contributions" 

 from shipping which the king's grant 

 authorized. Finally the corporation of 

 the town of Plymouth pulled down the 

 lighthouse, which the shipowners con- 

 sidered "burthensome to all ye countrie," 

 and there was no light at the Lizard for 

 132 years thereafter. 



Some of the early lights and buoys in 

 England were maintained by religious 

 men. On a tradition of such a philan- 

 thropy is founded Southey's ballad re- 

 garding the buoy on Bell Rock, where 

 now stands a great lighthouse : 



"The good old Abbot of Aberbrothock 

 Had placed that bell on the Tnchcape Rock; 

 On a buoy, in the storm, it floated and swung, 

 And over the waves its warning rung. 



"When the rock was hid by the surge's swell, 

 The mariners heard the warning bell : 

 And then they knew the perilous rock. 

 And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothock." 



THE DISCOVERY OF CANCER IN PLANTS 



An Account of Some Remarkable Experiments by the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture 



With Photographs by Dr. Brwin F. Smith 



THERE is no disease to which 

 mankind is liable more produc- 

 tive of intense suflfering than can- 

 cer, and yet its origin is unknown and 

 no certain method of cure has yet been 

 discovered. 



In recent years, particularly during 

 the last decade, the attention of experts 

 in medical research all over the world 

 has been more and more focused upon 

 this subject. Thanks to the munificent 

 cooperation of various public bodies and 

 individual philanthropists, a number of 



splendidly equipped laboratories have 

 been founded, and international con- 

 gresses are held from time to time, at 

 which investigators from all parts of the 

 world submit the results of their re- 

 searches. But. in spite of much patient 

 and laborious investigation, no definite 

 clue has been found, and we are still ap- 

 parently far from a knowledge of the 

 causes producing this disease. 



This is the more unfortunate because, 

 if we may tru.st the statements of statis- 

 ticians, cancer is becoming increasingly 



