The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01
A CANCER CURE.
But One Case Does Not Really Prove
Anything.

London Mail.
Cancer alone among diseases has in
creased with civilization, and has dehed
every medical effort at cure. Prof. Roswell
Park, of New York, recently declared that
II the present relative death rates are
maintained during the next ten years
there Will be more deaths from cancer
alone than from consumption, smallpox
and typhoid combined"
This summer the King promised the
highest honOrs TO the man who would dis
cover a cure. To judge from the case OF
Lady Margaret Marsham, sister of the
present Earl of Romney a remedy mas
been found not by scientific research, but
in an old wife's cure. The Onlooker gives
the details of the story.
Lady Margaret Marsham, who is sixty
seven years of age, was for four months
i'll with an affection of the throat, which
the doctors pronounced cancer. This dag
nosis was supported after analysis by a
London specialist, the analysis being made
at the laboratories of the Clinical Research
Association. Lady Margaret became so
bad that her throat nearly closed up. nour-
ishment had to be artiicially administered
and her death was expected in a week.
AT this point a neighbor, the daughter OF
an old friend. Lady Mary Ross, recalled a
story she had heard when a child that
cancer could be relieved by an infusion
made from violet leaves. 1t was not ex-
pected that this would cure, but only re-
lieve the pain. Lady Anne Marsham, Sis
ter of the patient, obtained the recipe, and
as a forlorn hope determined to try it.
This recipe was exceedingly simple, and
ran as follows:
Take a handful of fresh green violet
leaves and pour a pint of boiling water
upon them, cover them and let them stand
twelve hours. until the water is discolored
and green: Then strain on the llqHld, aIP
a piece of lint into the infusion, of which
a sufficient quantity must be warmed. Put
on the wet lint hot wherever the malady
is. Cover the lint with oil silk or thin
macintosh. and change it whenever. dry
or cold. The infusion should be fresh
about every alternate day"
The effect was, in Lady Anne's words
almost like a miracle" Relief was i'm
mediately obtained. A large, hard external
tumor disappeared in a week. Al! pam
ceased, and the cancerous growth In the
tonsil disappeared in a fortnight.
The apparently dying woman is now. In
good health and able to travel and visit her
friends.
The most striking fact about this story
is that there can be no possible doubt of
The disease really being cancer Many al
legged cures on other lines have been ignored
because there has been a doubt on this
point.
Lady Ann Marsaam, writing on Nov. 6,
said:
cit is marvellous that the remedy should
have come just In time, as at the time 1t
was BEGUN she Uady MargareD could hard
; " speak or swallow, and was not expected
to live "A week. There is no doubt about its
being a case Of cancer-or the correct name
I is. | believe, ''epithelioma'-and the speci-
mems taken from the throat have been
freshly examined by the head of the Patho-
Az oON4ONJ oAo 1871
cancer
Medical men in London are not ready ID
believe that the application of an infusion
of fresh green vlolet-leaves will cure can
Ger.
The story given in The Onlooker' of
the rapid recovery of Lady Margaret
Marsham, sister of the Earl of Romney,
after this simple and homely rCmedy had
been tried is not in the least 0iscredited.
but physicians strongly urge that the pub
&c should not hastily jump 10 the concllI-
son that a cure for the dread disease has
been discovered.
Before doctors will recognize the treat
ment as a cure" said one gentleman yes
terday, they will have to be sure of many
cases of cancer which have been cured
after similar treatment. One isolated case
proves nothing"
said it was well known that in several cases
of cancer the malignant growth had en-
tirely disappeared, although no special
treatment had bean adopted.
Every now and then" he said, a case
Of cancer subsidies for some inexplicable
used. as in the case of Lady Margaret
Marsham, naturally the person infers that
the disappearance Of the cancer was due to
the drug. But in hospitals where drugs
have not been used patients have recovered,
and no one has yet been able to point to
the cause of the recovery.
I'm most of these cases the disease has
reappeared and the patients have died. 1T
may be months after that it has come back
or it may be years. No. you may be certain
that a cure for cancer has not yet been
found.
Let people try the infusion of violet
leaves If they like, but they must not place
any reliance on 1t, and, above all, they
must not take any notice of the quacks who
pretend to cure cancer