Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1901-11-01
a" THAT OTHER TERRIBLE DISEASE
A Stimulus to Medical Men in the Battle
with Cancer.

! A Stimu illus to Medical Men in the Battle
with Cancer.
The tragic ending of the tragic life
of the Empress Frederick has given
a new meaning to the pathetic appeal
which King Edward made the other
day to English medical men to spare
no effort to combat that other terri
BILE disease-cancer." Sir James Pa
get, the famous English physician,
once declared that 'every one would
have cancer if only he lived long
| enough" and that must, | suppose. be
accepted as a fact; but it is evident
from the medical comments of the
week that there is no ground for as
sorting that the disease is on the in
crease in this country. An English
physician who speaks with authority
assures me on the contrary that al
though the essential nature of the dis
ease has so far baffied research, con-
siderable progress can be recorded
during the past two decades. In some
notes he has sent me he says;
Gust as in the case Of consump
ton, cancer was believed to be mainly
due to some inherited fault of consti-
tuition, and it need hardly be said that
this hypothesis engendered despair
ing frame of mind in the practitioner
rs we'll as the patient. The present
general belief throughout the British
medical profession, in support of which
numerous facts might be adduced, Is
that the disease is at first entirely To-
cal or limited, and in all probability
the result of the growth Of some spe-
cif1c micro-organism. The constitu-
ton may possibly have some influence
it is a question of relative suitability
of soil and seed-but it would not ap-
pear to be nearly so important factor
as in some other parasitic diseases, tu-
berculosis, for example. The conclu-
sion follows that If the disease is rec
ognized early enough, and is in some
accessible part from which it can be
removed freely by the surgeon, there
should be a fair chance that it may
never recur; and modern improve
ments in diagnosis and methods of op-
Grafton have actually accomplished
this in large numbers of cases. IL,
however precious time is wasted by
hesitating and temporizing, or by sub
hitting to the treatment of quacks,
the malignant growth not only de-
stroys the part it has first attacked,
but particles are carried to neighbor-
ing glands or to internal organs, just
as the seeds of a noxious weed may
be scattered over the whole garden.
Assuming this view to be correct,
the directions in which Improvement
may be looked for are two-in the
first place, the recognition of the par
asite; and secondly, as is now being
| done in the case of tuberculosis
| plague, malaria and many other dis
cases, the attainment of knowledge
! concerning it's life history and the
conditions which favor its growth. I'm.
til lately the real nature of all these
disorders was unknown, although ply
sicians suspected the existence of NOR
bific germs long before 1t was possible
to see these under microscope or cul
tivate them in test tube; but, thanks
to improvements in the instrument
and methods of the laboratory, the ad
vances in the sister sciences Of chem
istry and biology, and the brillian
discoveries of certain Investigators, w
are now no longer dependent on mer
theories, which have aided us so littl
in the past"