Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-01-25
INVESTIGATION OF DISEASE.
Increase of Cancerous Affection in
This and Other Countries.

Increase or CancerOuS Anect1On In
This and Other Countries.
In the course of an interesting pa
per recently contributed in the New
York Medical Record on The Early Di-
agnosis of Cancer of the Stomach, DR..
John c. Hemmeter of Baltimore, pro-
fessor of the medical department of
the University of Maryland calls at
tention to the alarming increase of
this disease the world over during the
end of the nineteenth century. "Ac-
cording to the reports of the registrar
general" says DR.. Hemmeter, 'the
mortality from cancer in England and
Wales Us progressively increasing out
of all proportion to the increase of the
population, and with rapidity that
may wei arrest the attention of sani-
tarians. A study of the tables COM
piled Fl om these reports shows that in
1910 cancer caused 2,7s6 deaths, the
proportion being one in 5,646 of the to-
tai population. and one in 129 OF the
total mortality, or 1T per million
living; in 1896 the deaths due to it
numbered 1881, or one in 1906 of the
total population, and one in % of the
total mortality, or 764 per million liv-
ing" In other words, the proportion
ate mortality from cancer ncw is four
and half times greater than it was
half century ago." The same signifi-
cant increase in the disease is shown
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 Loadon in
creased 0.87 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 OBS 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 1852 per
cent of the entire death rate It is
estimated that Eat least forty thousand
persons are now suffering from cancer
in England and Wales, whereas in 1910
the nunlbe,s was only about fifty-fve
hundred Should the disease in
crease i'll the future at the same rela-
tive rate" says DR.. Hemmeter, sit 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-ln other words, among the work.
ing clasSes-whereas the cancer NOR
taIlty is greatest among the agricul-
tural community, where people are
well-to-do, and where the standard of
health highest and of life easiest
The English authority quoted DE
lleVes the most potent factors in the
causat1ons of cancer to be high feeding
and easy living. So, too. in LONDON,
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
tentlo. 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 no
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
tality is neglected. Yet, if the dispro-
increase in deaths from this
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 warning
in the urgent suggestion that cit be-
hooves sanitarians to investigate with
great care the conditions which favor
the development of cancer, whether
these be personal or regional, dietetic
or microbic, for it is only by the avoid
ance Of the main Geological factors
that decrease in the prevalence of
cancer can be ,ained''
In connection with the question of
the causation of cancer, the New York
Herald reproduces from it's English
edition an article describing recent e9-
periments of Dr. Fiessinger of Oyon-
max and DR. Bra, which they think
point to 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
and, on the other hand, that
trees can be inoculated with cancer
cultures from a 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
he fungus which causes certain dis
eases of trees" The foreign expert |
nenters we've ledalong this line of re-