The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-13
CURE OF CANCER.
Cornell Professors Claim to Have
Discovered One.
TRANSMISSION of Blood Method
Used by Them.
APPARENT SUCCESS.
Tried on Animals and Cure Is
Effected.
End Of Great Problem Probably
in Sight.

4NcW OTh, JdD. 10."DI. James
Ewing, head pathologist of Cornell
Medical college and president of the
American Society for Cancer Re
search. stated yesterday that expert
ments upon animals convinced him
that science was on the eve of discov-
ering cure for cancer in the human
body. Such forecast is especially
cheerful in view of the recent asser--
ton of DIR. Harvey R. Gaylord, chief
of the State Cancer hospital at Buff
fa1o, who said:
THE increase of cancer in the
state of New York is appalling 1t
now takes half as many lives as tu-
berculosiS.'
of cancer at the Cornell Medical col
lege, Dr. Ewing said:
Many tests were made upon dogs
with the. result that animals which
had been suffering with malignant
cancer were positively cured. The
method pursued was to bleed a dog
afflicted with the disease until it was
nearly lifeless, then connect it's veins
with healthy animal, and fill them
with new blood. Some of the animals
treated have been watched for over a
year after the operation, but none
showed any recrudescence of the dis
ease.
Tests Confined to Animals.
whether or not man could be cur
ed OF cancer by blood TRANSMISSION is,
OF course, a matter of conjecture. This
test has never been applied to any
human being. Furthermore, the ex-
pertinent brings the patient so near
death, that for ethical reasons no ply
s1c1an would care to advise this sort
of treatment for a human patient
Yet, see no particular reason why a
man suffering from cancer should not
be benefited by the establishment
of a new blood supply, as is a dog.
am prompted to speak freely be-
cause of the fact that in spite of the
enormous progress science has made
IN the study of cancer the cry has
been raised that vivisection or animal
experimentation should stop. If
these people who oppose us would
themselves stop to learn how much
good has already been accomplished
for the human race as the result of
the work they decry they would cease
trying to oppose u.s.,
End of Problem in Sight.
Although it may be unsafe to make
any predictions, it is certa inly legiti-
mate to claim that the therapeutic
principles established by experiments
on lower animals will prove appli-
cable in some form to man for cancer
as for diphtheria. We may, there
fore, assert that the end of the can
Ger problem is in sight.
by pursuing the principles discoy-
cred in the laboratory we may conf
IDENTIFY hope to prevent the occurrence
of some cancers, to bring others to a
standstill and greatly to reduce the
incidence and mortality of the dis
ease.
In the study of cancer, more than
| any other disease, it has been proved
THAT the investigator should be per-
mited absolute freedom in animal ex-
perimentatfon. For more than a CEN
| tury all efforts to transplant tumors
from one animal to another proved
fruitless. Then, at last it was accom-
pllshed, and new experiments made
possible to test or try for a cure.
TT later vas proved that in animals
into which cancerous growths were
transplanted a self agent manifested
itself which effected a spontaneous
| cure. Thereafter, these animals were
| immune. It was dogs that had been
thus rendered proof against cancer
for those that were cured of the dis
eaSe.''
Quick Action Necessary.
DR.. Ewing said that in combating the
disease it was of prime Importance to
seize it early. The use of the knife was
sufficient oftentimes in incipient cases
| tc ward off the disease. if not actually
| cure it..
/ The ravageS of cancer, Dr. Ewing
| added, would doubtless be greatly di-
minished if the public knew more about
it's symptoms and treatment. People
| would thus be able to detect the ap-
proach of the disease in themselves and
prevent its growth through its neglect.
| For this reason the American Medical
Association is arranging for a course
of public lectures at the Academy of
Medicine this winter where the public
/ may learn all that science has thus far
discovered concerning this most fearful
| ScOurge,