The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-02
Cancer and Alluvial Soil.


/ spoke q short time ago about M
Charles Blanc having died of cancer,
and pointed to the conclusion that his
malady was to be in some degree traced
to the alluvial situation OF the Palais
Mazarin, where he resided. Of that
disease, / said that it haunts low-lying
river-sides and the mouths of streams
which serve as sewers. Perhaps it
might be of interest to some OF your
readers to know on what data have to
go. Raspail first called my attention to
the fact seventeen or eighteen years
ago. He was, in Holland. struck with
the prevalence of cancer in the LOVELY
ing districts, and still more along the
mouths of the Scheldt and the Rhine.
He at first ascribed the frequency of the
malady to the electrical conditions pro-
duced by the met lie plates which the
women of different Netherlandish local
tiles wear on their heads to support
their tall lace and muslin caps; but he
also found that in the tidal region of the
Seine, where the soil is alluvial, there
was a grea5 deal of cancer, although no
metal entered into the head-gear. He
pursued his observations at the mouths
of other rivers. They led him to be-
lieve that conditions of soil and atmos-
phere which de- eloped scrofula were
also favorable to cancer, amalady which
is apt to first show itself in a glandular
region. Trousseau used to advise pa
tients in VIII m he discovered a cancer
Gus tendency to try and live where the
soil is dry, the air brisk and the aspect
sunny. l have known of a good round
number of deaths from cancer in those
quarters of the city where there are
underground water-courses, and along
the Seine. Count Won Goltz, the Prus-
sian Ambassador for many years at the
Court of the Tuileries, lived close to the
river. When Madame Louis Blame was
attacked with the cancerous malady of
which she died, she had been for some
time residing in the part of the Rue de
Rivoli nearest to the Seine.
Many years ago, in making an excur-
sion down the Shannon, was appalled,
at the number of cancerous old women
who stretched out their hands for aims
at the landing places. Near Athlone as
many as three miserable beings. with
faces on which the disease was greedily
feeding, presented themselves together
A carman who noticed that the sight of
them gave me "a turn" said: "A
power of widows dies round here of
cancer. We're used to seeing them
and have got hardened. It's all the
fault of the Board of Works, that is
paid to drain the country and won't do
it. NV own mother-Heaven be her
bed!- died of cancer. She had bad
tooth when the river flooded the house;
it ached, her face swelled up; the doctor
lanced it, and in eighteen months time
she was in her grave" A cancerous
tumor of ulcer broke down the consti-
tuition of the Duchess of Kent at damp
Frogmore. 1t would be very easy to get
at statistics showing what geological
and atmospheric conditions most favor
cancer if patients ON admission to hos
pital were asked to state in what locali-
ties they had been residing when the
disease first showed itself. have never
seen a cancerous face in the chalky up
lands of Kent, but have seen good
many about Dartmouth, the Hoo
marshes, Woolwich and Chelsea
-TO17dO92 Truth