The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-04-24
a MooIEp POINT.
Doctors Who Say That Cancers Are Not
Generally Caused BY smoking.

tributed have occasioned much COM
ment among smokers of this city. Some
of the more timid ones have reduced
their daily allowance of cigars, and
others profess to have no fears OF any
trouble. A World reporter yesterday
interviewed many physicians, and they
all agreed that the danger of cancer
from smoking is very slight indeed,
and that in only a small per centage OF
cases OF epithelioma can the origin be
clearly tracei to the use of tobacco.
Some physicians, in fact, say hat there
is really no such thing as ''smokers
cancer" and one young doctor at Belle
vue Hospital stopped putting his cigar
cite long enough to assure the reporter
that 'all this talk about 'pipeNancer
is bluff and gulf" Older surgeons,
however, say that, while very rare. a
few eases of smokers cancer do occur.
DIR. STEPHEN SIN th. one of the oldest
surgeons at Bellevue Hospital. said that
there were not probably more than a
1Ozen cases a year OF ep.thelioma OF
he lip treated at that institution. land
Ill of these can not be by any means
attributed to smoking he continued.
Some of the patients are women, and
some OF them men who do not smoke.
Continued pressure and consequent
irritation upon any part OF the
skin are apt to bring on epithcIio-
ma in those predisposed to it. The
pressure of the crown-plate of set OF
false teeth or the irritation caused by Il
broken tooth rubbing against the lip
may start the trouble. Where smok-
ing is responsible for its occurrence it
will be found that long-continued
pressure of the p pe-stem upon tine
lower lip results in the formation OF q
fissure or sore spot. 1t gradually de-
velOps into cancer, often before the
sufferer knows what the trouble is.
One case came to my notice recently in
which the patient DID not smoke, but
was in the habit of CARRYING an unlight-
ed cigar in his mouth.
did the nicotine poison his blood
and thus produce cancer?'
mo: | think it was due to the pres
sure of the cigar upon the lip-nothing
more"
w HIT uU NOu 10 tiiS SiiiohSl .
best preventive of cancerp"
TO let pipes and cigars severely
alone is the best plan | can suggest
do the cases of cancer of the lip
often result fatally"
NO. not if taken in time. But peo-
pie generally wait until it is too late
before attending to it. The diseased
part is cut out, but the maladv recurs
at intervals of few months, and
death frequently results after three
or four wears The most not ID case
which can recall is that of Rev. DR..
Burlington, the Brooklyn clergyman.
You remember. he fingered Il long
while. and died after a great deal of
suffering and several operations had
been performed. | do not think he
was smoker. The present alarm
about cancer from smoking is over
done. Pressure of the cigar or pipe
may be the directing cause Of cancer,
but it will be found that in the ma
tority OF cases there is Il predispos;
ton to the disease in the person at
tackled. Those afflicted with cancer of
the lip do not always suffer from much
pain, and know OF quite a number of
instanc IS where there was compare
lively Little or no suffering from the
disease. Very often. perhaps in the
majority Of eases, epithelioma results
from the dcgenerat on of the tissues in
cidcntal t. old az. There seems to he
a general d cay of the membrane. You
will find that most of those N whom
cancer appears are above fifty years
old"
\ World reporter called upon DR..
Buckley At the Skin and Cancer Hos
D tai in Thirty-fourth street. In re-
Spouse to questions he 81 d: Il think
the alarm about the d sastrouS conse-
quenccs OF tobacco smOk nc are much
greater than the facts warrant. Cancer
OF the lower lip is comparatively rare,
and can not always be traced to smok-
ing. although pipe cancer is name
long ago gwen to the disease. The eff
fects of moderate smoking on the av-
erare man are not seen at all. In per-
sons of average strength | con-
slider three cigars day the num-
Der they can generally smoke with
safety. and the strongest man | ever
saw could not consume more than ten
a day with impunItv. P.peS generally
collect nicot ne in the bowl or stem.
which escapes to the mouth, and, COM
ing in contact with the mucous MEM
brane. is apt to get into the system and
cause local cancers on the lips or tip
of the tongue Excessive smoking Of
ten brings on what is called smokers
patch 1t consists of irregular white
patches. which appear On the DIES of
the tongue and the ms dcof the cheeks.
This is often. although not always,
preliminary TO cancer. Ii person
stops smoking when smokers
patch appears, the trouble soon yields
to treatment; ii not. cancer will prob
ably set in. But. as l sa ii The disease
is comparatively rare. Ep:thel oma OF
the lips is almost exclusively seen in
males. 1t has been asserted by several
writers that where it oc :urs in females
it is found that they smoke. DIR. War
ren. OF the Massachusetts General Hos
pital, in Boston. reports that III his eX-
periencc of forty years at that inst tu-
ton the whole number of cases of can
Ger of the lip were seventy-Scven, of
which only four We're females. Fcrtv-
four of the men were smokers, an6 Of
the four women tlree admitted t;iat
they smoked pipes"
TO what extent does the disease IRE
vail in this citv?"
Cancer from smoking is not very
common in New YorkC:ty. l havemet
with comparatively few cases. Quite
possibly a dozen would cover al that l
have encountered in eighteen or twenty
years practice here.
How does it man fest It's elf and de-