New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-04-16
THE PARASITE OF CANCER
RUMORs THAT 1T HAS BEEN D1SCOv-
Erred AT LAST.
AN ALARMING INCREASE IN THE PREVALENCE
OF THIS DISEASE ON BOTH SIDES OBJ
\ TIE ATLANTIC MODERN IDEAS
AS TO IT'S NATURE.
AS TO IT'S NATURE.

A number or nave COIHDineo VI
late to direct the attention of the medical pro-
fession and Of the general public to cancer one
is the declaration Of high English authority
that this dreaded malady is increasing in preva-
lence in Europe Another is a similar statement
by Dr. Roswell Park of Buffalo, who is at the
head of State institution for the study of con-
tagious diseases A third is the announcement
from Paris that DR. Bra has at last found
the parasite which has long been suspected or
causing cancer
In England and Wales in the period between
1910 and 1890 the death rate from cancer In
creased from one in every 5,G4G OF population to
in 1906. The mortality from this cause
In New-York State grew from 2.363 IN 1881
to 4 4.G in 1898 or nearly doubled In ten or
eleven years. And DR. Park in recent address
before the State Medical Society uttered the
following prophecy: IF during the next ten
years the relative death rates are maintained,
we shall find In 1909 that there will be more
deaths from cancer than from consumption,
smallpox and typhoid fever combined"
On the occasion referred 10 DR.. Park presented
some of The evidence which has led physicians
to suspect that cancer is due to parasite or
germ like that which causes diseases that are
now distinctly recognized az infectious Nearly
all Of the old ideas this subject had been ex-
poded ne said. 1t no longer credible that
heredity perverted nerve centres mechanical
injury 10 the tissues produced cancer. The mere
fact that the trouble is Of slow growth is not "A
serious objection to the contagion theory, for
tuberculosis, eprosy and other maladies are
known which arc equally slow in developing,
and yet are now attributable to microbes.
Again the fact that the micro organism re-
sponsible for carcinoma-if there be one-has so
long eluded the search made for it is not con-
yincing There microbes too small to he
seen with the best instruments ever made al
though their existence is beyond question But
one Of these days with improved optical appa
ratus it may he possible to detect them. The
same argument applies to countless failures to
cultivate the germs of cancer artificially. Per-
haps a suitable culture medium. one more
nearly resembling the human body, may yet he
discovered, in which the cancer germ will prop
agate easily. Improved methods are needed In
this line Of research
One Of the most striking reasons for suspect
Ing that cancer is contagious ~ the tendency OF
one particular locality TO bc haunted by cases
Of this class. The frequent occurrence of the
disease in IA family points in the same direction
Moreover, incubation of animals with certain
organisms which are not derived from cancer
nevertheless gives rise to tumors that look like
malignant specimens, although they finally dis
APPEAR.
different sort of experimentation a rather
more significant one-is the transplantng OF bits
Of real tumcrs from one animal to another of
the same species. Rats, horses and dogs have
been treated in this way with notable results A
great deal Of this sort of thing has been done at
Montpelier, France. by Bose; in Italy by San
Fcce ana BOnciali, and IN Vienna by Gussen-
bauer. Among the tests were the impantine Of
portions of from a man who had been
dead three days in of the lower animals
Bose declares that he has even been able 10
effect successful incubation of three human
subjects with Even were these last
declarations rejected, there would still remain
the well-known transportation of cancer from
one part TO another Of the same person.
Microscopic examination Of cancerous tissue
has often revealed the presence of minute OBJ
jects about whose real nature opinions differ |
One expert suspects that they are a species of
protozoa-low forms Of animal life correspond
ing tC bacteria. or to fung in the vegetable |
world another takes them for microscopic |
fungi and third is disposed "a regard them /
~ cells Of human origin which have Undergone
degenerative changes. Similar objects have been |
associated with smallpox, measles aid other dis
eases, although their exact character and their
relation to the malady have been yelled in doubt
The announcement that DR.. Bra has found "A
parasite which can be cultivated and which
when used 10 inoculate animals produces iumors
like real cancers is accompanied with few de
tails The man is not so conspicuous in the world
Of science as some other French bacteriologisls
But that does not prove that ne is mistaken. In
reply 10 an inquiry as 10 the probable truth OF
the story, DR.. William II. Park, who conducts
the meteorological laboratory of the Board OF
Health OF this city said last week:
1T is hardly feasible or jus; 10 express an