THE DISCO\ERY OF CANCER IX PLANTS 



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common. According to the very care- 

 fully prepared statistics covering the 

 death rate in England and Wales, it ap- 

 pears that while in every million living 

 in 1871-1875 the annual death rate from 

 cancer was 445 cases, in 1901-1904 the 

 rate had risen to 861 cases. With an in- 

 crease so appalling, the need of discover- 

 ing the cause and cure of this disease is 

 urgent. 



WHAT THE CELLS ARE 



Cancer is a disease of the cells of the 

 body, and to obtain a clear idea of its 

 nature it will be necessary to consider 

 very briefly the cells as the living units 

 of protoplasm, of which all bodies, both 

 of plants and animals, are composed. 

 For example, the human body has its 

 origin in the union of two small cells, 

 and the single cell thus produced divides 

 in its turn into two, these two into four, 

 each cell dividing upon an arithmetical 

 progression of 2 . 4 . 8 . 16 . 32 . . . . 

 with incredible rapidity. Some concep- 

 tion of the diminutive size of these cells 

 can be formed when we know that ten 

 days after the union of the original male 

 and female cells the cell-structure, wdiich 

 will ultimately develop into the human 

 body, has attained the size of a pin's 

 head, yet it contains hundreds of thou- 

 sands of cells. 



All cells act automatically and repro- 

 duce themselves under internal or exter- 

 nal stimulus, but only in accordance with 

 the needs of the body to which they be- 

 long. Just what that stimulus is anc| 

 how it is caused is still a matter of some 

 obscurity, but recent researches by Dr. 

 Alexis Carrel, of New York, and many 

 others tend to show that all normal cell 

 stimulation, as far as the human body is 

 concerned, is due to secretions produced 

 by certain cell-groups, such as the pan- 

 creas, the thyroid, and other glands. 



So long as this automatic self-division 

 of cells, or proliferation, as it is called, 

 coincides with the needs of the body, a 

 normal condition exists. 



HOW A CANCER BEGINS 



A cancer results from an abnormal 

 proliferation of certain of these cells. 

 When from some still unknown reason a 

 cell is stimulated to abnormal, malignant 



proliferation it becomes the mother cell 

 of the cancer and gives rise to daughter 

 cells, which often multiply with immense 

 rapidity and so on indefinitely. These 

 abnormal cells also react upon normal 

 cells and stimulate them also into rai)id 

 growth until the typical cancer is formed. 

 A great number of theories have been 

 put forward to account for this abnor- 

 mal cell growth, the more important be- 

 ing the following: \^irchow's theory, 

 which attributes all tumors and cancer 

 to the direct results of injury or irrita- 

 tion ; Cohnheim's theory, which accounts 

 for cancer by a supposition that during 

 embryonic life certain cells are isolated 

 or "displaced from their normal relation- 

 ship or fail to undergo normal atrophy" 

 (Adami, Principles of Pathology, vol. i, 

 p. 835), the result being that they lie 

 dormant until roused into activity by 

 some stimulus, and that, having the 

 enormous power of proliferation which 

 characterizes all embryonic cells, they 

 outstrip the adult cells and a cancer re- 

 sults. 



Those who maintain these and other 

 theories of the non-parasitic origin of 

 cancer, and they constitute at present the 

 major part of all research workers in 

 the field of cancer, have always main- 

 tained that this disease cannot be para- 

 sitic, not only because no one has ever 

 been able to isolate or demonstrate any 

 parasite, but also, they claim, because the 

 cancer cell is itself the parasite. Cancer, 

 as of rats, mice, etc., cannot be repro- 

 duced, they have said, except by the in- 

 troduction into the animal experimented 

 upon of living cancer cells, usually from 

 another animal of the same species. 



THE PARASITIC THEORY 



The parasitic theory, however, has en- 

 thusiastic supporters, and is still a matter 

 which excites keen discussion in medical 

 circles. As will be shown later, it is 

 along this line that present indications 

 show the greatest promise of future re- 

 sults. This theory holds that cancer is 

 due to an abnormal stimulation pro- 

 duced by some still undiscovered micro- 

 organism, and its adherents point out 

 that cancer, with its localized primary 

 growth and widespread secondary infec- 

 tions, bears a remarkable similaritv to 



