The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-11

Special Cable to the New York Sun.
 London. August s.-Publlshed state ments with regard to medical discoveries, chiefly in connection with the x-rays and radium, succeed one another with such rapidity that 1t is difficult to follow them with precision. The deepest interest, nat urally, is centered on the achievements of those who are trying to work their which, as a cause of death in this coun- try. ranks second only to phthisis.
 The results of a series of experiments In Great Britain and on the continent have already been described in The Sun. They certainly are such as to arouse the hopes of expert investigators, who are now devoting themselves entirely to this great problem, that they are at least on the right track. It would be rash and un- justifable at present to say more. yet statements are constantly appearing in the daily press raising false hopes of sufferers that a cure has been found at last.
 One such was made yesterday by emil nent bacteriologists, who have been en- gagged entirely in the last six months in research work at the laboratory of the Royal College of Surgeons under the auspices of the cancer research fund. DTS. Murray and Bashford who were fuse to give confirmation to the story.
  Nothing, they declare, Is being neglected by the committee, and consequently much research has taken place with respect to incipient cancer in lower animals, yet the causes of cancer in lower animals are often of an entirely different nature from those in man. The parasitic conditions are different. while the treatment which would be adopted and proves successful in the cases of animals, could never be applied to human beings.
 The cancer cure. said one or the physi- clans will never be discovered by one man. When It is found 1t will be by the continuous efforts of every one engaged. One little clue leads to another and mo- body hides anything or tries to hide any thing from his colleagues It must be noted, too, that there1s not the slightest intimation in the report presented week ago to the first annual meeting of the cancer research fund committee that any definite results from the experiments are imminent.
 Prof Duguet, an eminent Paris physi- elan and professor in the French Academy of Medicine. declares that the experiments hitherto made have revealed nothing on which to base scientific treatment. He says: we are still groping In the dark with regard to the reported cures by the x-rays. My long experience in the largest hospitals in Paris has made me most sceptical. Believe me- these cures are not definite.'
 The Middlesex Hospital in London is the pioneer in cancer research in Great Bri- tain. It receives suggestions of cures from all parts of the world weekly. Many are fairly tried, but hitherto without success. The Middlesex hospital doctors authorize the positive statement that, while they do not assert that they have effected any thing like a cure by means of the X-rays and Linsen light treatments. yet the pain has been abolished.
 Edison's experience of i'll effects from prolonged exposure to the X-rays Is no new thing in the London hispitals, where 1t has long been found that the demon- strators who are daily in the presence of the rays are liable to epithelioma. a mag lignant growth on the skin which is near ly allied to cancer. The workers In the radiograph department of the London hospitals are now on an enforced vaca- ton. with their hands injured. but this is not common experience. One pre- caution taken in some of the continental hospitals Is that of employing a leaden screen. when taking radiographs. so that only the necessary surface shall be ex- posed to the rays. This plan. it is thought