The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-24

ing an emulsion of cancer tissue with salt and water, and injecting it.
 When any vaccine" made from given species of disease germ, is in- troduced into the blood of human being, it causes the body cells to pro- duce for defensive purposes poison antagonistic to the virus of that par ticular malady. And, strange to say the cells go on making this anti-poi- son for, an indefinite period of years. Thus, if g. yeccinated person is at any time exposed to typhoid fever, for ex- ample, heN~ does not catch it, because the anti-poison already in his blood kills the typhoid microbes when they . enter and try to start mischief. It is the sane way with vaccination for cholera, or any other disease. An Artificial immunity is obtained.
 If the cancer germ could be found the manufacture of a vaccine from it, in the manner already described, would be easy enough. But, in all lik6lihood it never vii be discovered --the req son. being simply that it is too small to be seen even with the aid of a high-power microscope. To cite a parallel example, yellow fever is positively known to be caused by a microbe of definite speciesLa bac- terium of some kind. Blu tthat 'bac- terium is so tiny that no human eye has ever beheld it, or is likely to do so. Precisely the same thing might be said of the germs of measles, scar let fever, and smallpox.
 The failure to discover a germ of cancer has led some investigators to the conclusion that there really was no germ at all. They have advanced a theory to the effect that the mal- ady was caused by rebellion of cer- tain groups of cells, which actually turned against the body of which they were part, preying upon it and mul- tiplying at it's expense, thus establish ing destructive parasitic growth in the very flesh of the victim. Unde- niably, the idea is both picturesque and ingenious, but there is very lit tie real evidence to support it. On the other hand, if there be a specific germ of the disease of size great enough to be seen, it would certainly have been identified ere this way by one or more of the scientific men who for many years have been studying the cancer problem in all parts of the civilized world.
 One fact that seems to point to the existence of specific germ is the existence of so-ca1led cancer houses," in: which there have been repeated deaths from the disease, even when they were occupied by a succession of families not related to each other. Phenomena of the kind have been too marked to be explained on the- ory of mere coincidence. For exam pie, in the village of Comedies, in Normandy, in one street of fifty-sev- en houses, seventeen of these dwell ings in a short time furnished twen- ty-one cases ef-eancer.-e
 There are likewise well-recognized ''cancer districts"-such, for instance, as the township of Brookfield, near the center of New York state where the death rate from this naIady is more than double the average, for the rest of the state. How can this be explained unless on the theory that a specific germ, accountable for the mis- chief is more prevalent in that par ticular region than elsewhere? How account in any other way for the great and rapidly increasing cancer mortality of San Francisco?
 Another interesting point in this con- nection is the markedly heritable character of cancer. It seems to run in families. In some families it is very prevalent, attacking victim after victim On the other hand, there are families which appear to be immune to the disease. Here is fact.
 which does not point necessarily to the existence of a germ. but may fair ly be regarded as an indication in that direction.
 In the meantime, while the scien- lists are trying so hard to fight it, the disease is rapidly gaining ground, not only in this country, but every where It's death rate all over the world has increased something like 40 per cent. during the last twenty years. Very soon, in the United States it will pass and outruni tuber- culosis as destroyer of human life After thirty-five years of age, one man in every seventeen dies of a can cer, and one woman in every nine It is a malady of later life Under for ty years of age, deaths from it are rare. But the age of greatest liabil- ity is from fifty to fifty-four One in every five women who die in that period of their lives is killed by that frightful disease.
 Cancer is the only disease which at the present time is on the increase During the present year it will kill about 35,000 persons in the United States Nobody is exempt. It fre- quently attacks the most healthy in