The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-01
TELLS OF CANCER
 CURES BY RADIUM
Eleven Cases of Giant Cell sarcoma Reported to the Practitioners Society By Dr. Abbe, Who Believes It a Specific.

New York, Feb. s1.-Dr. Robert Abbe of this city, the foremost. advocate in
 this country of radium as a curative
 agent in the treatment of cancer. re-
 gently read a paper before the Practi
 tioners' Society on "Radium as Spe-
 cific in Giant Cell Sarcoma,'' in which
 he recounted some eleven cases of can cerous tumors of rather unusual char
 acteristics, all of which apparently had
 been cured by radium. Some of the patients were present at the meeting and were examined by the physicians present.
 The paper is printed in full with de- tails of the cases in The Medical Rec ord In conclusion, Dr. Abbe says: '"This review of a group of cases of one type of malignant cell growth, all showing peculiar, I may say unique,
 retrograde changes, tending always to return to the normal, gives demon I 1stration of the efficacy of radium, as
 clear to the clinical student as dem onstration of Euclid on a classroom l blackboard.
 "There is no similar record in sur gerry, as far as I know. It may be supplemented by other remarkable cases in radium literature dealing with sarcomata and epithelienra ta. The dis appearance of a round cell sarcoma of l | this society, is a notable one.
 Again, in a remarkable destructive sarcoma of the hUnerus, where the | bone had fractured in the growth, reported by pr. w. G. Morton of this city, the skiagraphs show the cure by l a radium treatment of six weeks. I 1 have recently read a letter from the l the sound for all purposes, washing, ! ;roning &c., and remains cured after five years.
 "We have, then, to face a pathologi- cal and surgical problem which needs explanation. Why should an overgroWn
 mass of a certain group of cells of the body, like these marrow cells, grow riotously and constitute a tumor which absorbs healthy structures opposing it's expansion and destroy the body in a manner jusIifying it's name 'malig- nant'? And, again, when the powerful Becquerel rays emitted from radum penetrate the mass, why should the retrograde of all malignant cells pro- ceed with orderly retreat, until the tumor has entirely gone? Or, again, how shall we explain the reassembling ng of original cells out of the mass, so
 as to shape the parts like the jaw
 bone, the roof of the mouth, the hum-
 erus, Sc, so that the appearance and function are restored?
 ttIt is a bold speculation that permits one to venture in this field of biology when master minds admit ignorance of what constitutes the vital force
 which epergizes each cell, and consti-
 tutes life as a whole Yet we may be permitted to suggest that there are already known definite facts as to the
 nature of the rays, that they are elec-
 irons emitted with tremendous force
 travelling in straight undertaking lines 2 each carrying an electric charge, if
 indeed, they are not themselves elec-
 tricity, speeding at 10000 miles sec
 ond retarded by dense objects, like
 masses of lead or steel, or bone or
 stone, only to escape beyond and re-
 sume their travels into space. It is recognized that radioactivity exists ev-
 anywhere but 1t is only when we con- centrate it in our powerful little tubes
 that we can study definite effects.
 "The alpha, beta, and gamma rays
 have different electric charges, and
 different effects. The alpha are SUD-
 pressed entirely in the glass tube. The
 3eta, carrying negative currents, es- cape feebly, and the gamma, carrying
 it's own electricity, penetrate every
 hing Is it not conceivable that the
 iotous overgrowth of cells constitut-
 ng a tumor may be due to a loss of
 equilibrium in the balance of electric
 orces sustaining the normal cell growth, and that the supply of one