Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-01-25

total population, and one in % of the
total mortality, or 764 per million liv-
| ing In other words, the proportion
ate mortality from cancer nav is four
and half times greater than it was
half a century ago." The same signifi-
cant increase in the disease is showa
by the statistics of Berlin, Vienna.
Paris, New York and other cities Dur
ing the ten years preceding 1895 the
death rate from cancer in London in
creased 0.S7 per cent, while the aver
age death rate from cancer in New
York city during the ten years prior
to 1895 was 2.17 per cent of the total
mortality of that period, showing an
increase of 0.35 per cent in the pre-
ceding ten years" In 1895 Philadel-
phia showed an increasing rate of O.26
per cent, Boston 0.54 per cent, Balti-
more 0.64 per cent. +" In Baltimore the
loss by death from cancer is 3.52 per
cent of the entire death rate" 1t is
estimated that ''at least forty thousand
persons are now suffering from cancer
in England and Wales, whereas in 1910
the number was only about fifty-five
hundred" Should the disease in
crease in the future at the same rela-
tive rate" says DR.. Hemmeter, lit will
become the commonest of all" 1t is
noted that this augmented mortality
corresponds with increase in popula-
ton, in wealth and improvement in
general sanitary conditions. In Ire
land, wheer this condition of affairs
does not obtain to corresponding ex-
tent, the cancer death rate has become
much smaller and has shown no such
marked increase, The investigations
OF an English authority quoted by DR..
Hemmeter indicate that cancer NOR
tally is lowest where the struggle for
existence is hardest, the population
densest, the general mortality highest,
the average duration of life shortest
where sanitation is least perfect and
the death rate from tuberculosis high
est-in other words, among the w.rk-
ing classes-whereas the cancer NOR
tally is greatest among the agricul-
tural community, where people are
well-to-do, and where the standard of
health highest an! of life easiest
The English authority quoted be
lleves the most potent factors in the
causat1on of cancer to be high feeding
and easy living. So, too, in Lonson
where the cancer rate is highest, it is
significant that this is particularly true
of those parts where the wealthy most
abound" DR.. Hemmeter calls at
tentioA to the fact that Gin respect OF
| this immense increase in mortality
cancer is unique, for nothing at all ap-
preaching it is furnished by the Stats.
tics of any other disease, and yet nc
| effect appears to have been produced
on the medical profession or the gen.
eral public by these startling figures
Concerted efforts are being rsade to
stay the progress of tuberculosis
while the warning of the cancer NOR
tally is neglected. Yet, if the disBro
portionate increase in deaths from this
! malignant disease continues, cancer
will soon be as lethal as typhoid fever,
smallpox and tuberculosis combined. -
In the face of these statistics DR.. Hem
meter utters timely note of warming
in the urgent suggestion that cit be-
hooves sanitarians to investigate with
great care the conditions which favor
the development of cancer, whethe<'
these be personal or regional dietetic
or microbic, for it is only by the avoid
ance of the main Geological factors
that a decrease in the prevalence of
cancer can be a aimed"
In connection with the question of
the causation of cancer, the New York
Herald reproduces from its English
edition an article describing recent ex-
periments of DR.. Fiessinger of Oyon-
max and DR.. Bra, which they think
point to a vegetable origin of the dis
ease. Briefly stated, they claim that
their Investigations show that canker
in trees is contagious, and that it will
produce cancer in human beings and
animals, and, on the other hand, that
trees can be inoculated with cancer
cultures from human source 1t is
said that in trees inoculated in this
way in the forest of Meudon canker
formed in the bark of the ash, plane,
sycamore and acacia In other words,
"the fungus of the malignant tumors
of man appears to be identical with
the fungus which causes certain dis
eases of trees" The foreign expert
mentors were ledalong this line of re-
search by the observation that the dis
ease seems to flourish especially in the
vicinity of water courses, which are
generally more or less wooded, and
among the inhabitants of forests
These experiments have been watched
with interest by the medical profess
sion in this country, but the theory OF
the vegetable origin of cancer is not
regarded as established by such Ameri-
can physicians as have been inter.
viewed by the Herald, among them be-
ing DR.. Robert F. Weir, DIR. George F.
Shrady, DR.. William M. Polk, DR.,
Austin Flint, DR.. Charles McBurney,
DR.. James Ewing, DIR. Henry p.
Loomis, DIR. Charles Dowd and DR..
William T. Bull of New York and lead
ing men in the medical profession
elsewhere. While. however. they do
not accept this or other theories on the
subject, it is added that "they are al
nj fn ~ ho