The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1899-09-02
RAvAGEs OF CANCER.
some Interesting Information About
This GrcHtiS-FeHrTd
Disease,

Dr, Woods itulclinruhr OF Iuhuuh'
writing on what he denumiuutcs the
cancer problem, gives graphic de-
scription of the way the disease spreads
aud Ia which animal spores circulate
through the body which is very strlA-
ing
"Then comes the last and straugest
act OF this weird tragedy Ia the
course of the resistless onward march
Of these rebel cell columns some OF
their sltirmishers push through the
wall of Il lymph channel or even, by
some rare chance, a vein, and are swept
away by the stream. Surely, now the
regular lencocyte cavalry have them al
their mercy and can cut them down al
leisure. We little realize the iiendish
resourcefulness of the cancer cell.
One such, udrift in the body, is like a
ferret in a rabbit warren; no other cell
can face il for an instant. II simply
floats unmolested along the lymph
channels until its progress is arrested
in some way, when il promptly settles
down wherever il may happen 10 have
landed, begins to multiply and push
out columns in every direction, into
and at the expense of the surrounding
tissues, and behold, Il new cancer or
secondary nodule is born
Dr. Hutchinson affords a curiously
lucid idea of the actual genesis Of the
scourgc in the body and iuStities his
description OF il as treason in the re-
public of the body" Like most long
lived diseases" he says, lit is health
process gone wrong. This is the secret
of half its deadliness and all its unmau-
ageableness." The absurd idea that
cancer has been caused by eating to.
matoes, Of course. finds no favor with
the writer. The only evidence that
has vet been adduced in favor Of this
attractive explanation is" he says,
that both tomatoes and cancer have
become much more common in the last
% years, which is hardly conclusive.
The argument might with equal force
be applied to postage stamps or the
suffrage" He does not believe. either,
that blow on any part of the body
can be more than a secondary cause OF
cancer. If there are the preeNsting
conditions of cancer an injury may pre-.
cipitate the outbreak and determine
the locality, but there must be the nee
essaty conditions preeXisting. This is
decla red to be in accordance with the
balance of expert opinion. The same
may be said of the possibility of the
pipe producing cancer on the lip of the
| smoker.
Ninety per cent. of all men smoke,
| while only about two per cent. develop
cancer of the lips or tongue, and in a
majority of cases the disease breaks
out in some part of the lips not affected
by the pipe. There seems good rea'
son to believe that the asserted alarm.
ing increase of the malady is more APP.
parent than real and is due to increased
accuracy of diagnosis and record. How
ever this may be, it is terrible fact
| that one person in every twelve above
the age of 40 is doomed TO die of this
| malady. DIR. Hutchinson seems hope
full of a solution of this riddle of the
sphinx. and is certainly very CHEEKY in
what he has to say about its treat
| ment:
Fifty years ago we operated chiefly
with the hope of prolonging life or re-
lieving pain: now we expect to cure
from 30 to 60 per cent. of our cases if
we can see them early enough. This
great improvement is due partly to the
wonderful advance of modern sur
gerry, but more to greater skill in rec
ognizing the very earliest stages of the
disease and to a wider and more intel
ligent recognition on the part of the
patients of an early diagnosis. 1t can
not be too strongly emphasized that
cancer in its early stages is distinctly
durable disease; in its later almost in
durable. "-Contemporary Review.