The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-05-03
STUDY CANCER
INFECTION IN
BRITISH HOMES
MEDICAL MEN AND SANITATION
EXPERTS ARE TAKING GREAT
INTEREST IN THIS NEW PROB
LEM WHICH HAS BEEN PRE-
SENTED THEM.
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS.

|
| London, May 2.-Medical men and
sanitation experts are taking a great
! interest in the problem as to whether
a person can become infected with can
Ger through living in a house in which
a cancer victim has lived. For years
the question has been a matter Of de-
| bate and medical literature abounds in
references to cancer houses.
Investigation in England has fol-
who found that in a village of 400 in
habitants in France eleven deaths
| from cancer occurred in seven years,
all being located in the same block Of
houses. Three years later there was
seventeen cancer patients in these
houses. In other parts of France, in
Guiding Paris, a similar condition was
found
In Great Britain there are numerous
cancer houses" There is a vicarage
in the north of England where two
successive incumbents have died OF
concer. In a large house of Somer~
set where a man died of cancer many
years ago, his wife, his wtfe's second
husband, a member of his family by
his first wife and a housekeeper have
in Scotland the cancer history ex-
tends back three generations. An ex-
pertinent was made there by confin
ing mice in a trap. Several of them
contracted the disease.
Sir Thomas Oliver, the distinguish
ed physician and writer on medical
subjects, in a recent address, declared
that the germ thOry of cancer was only
doubtfully accepted, still it was known
that cancer could be conveyed from
man to lower animals. Moreover, il
was regarded as probable that just as
some persons were particularly sus
ceptible to infectious diseases so some
persons might inherit peculiar vul
nerability of the tissues whereby at
particular age they become liable to
vulnerability explain some of the facts
about cancer houses. In his annual
report to the insurance institute at
Newcastle-o n-Tyne, Sir Thomas said:
MY attention has been drawn to a
series of cases in a street not one
twelfth Of mile long in a small town.
In the fifteen years from 1879? tn 1908
there died from cancer In this street
nineteen persons and one dog. In
some of the houses there had occurred
two or three cases. AS in all the cases
there was no hereditary history of the
disease, the large number of deaths
among successive occupants of the
houses has suggested that the matter
is more than coincidence"
c. E. Green another scientist who
has studied the subject Of cancer be-.
HeveS that it is largely due to coal
fires. Nairnshire has the highest can
Ger death rate in Scotland. Mr.. Green
reported that in 1912 the districts of
Nairnshire which were free from can
Ger were those where peat is burned,
not coal. So frequently has he OBJ
served this fact that he is disposed
to attribute the prevalence of cancer
to the combustion of coal rich in sui
phur, especially where the houses of
the people are on sloping sites or in
hollows.
The Easter holidays which the royal
family spent at Windsor Castle found
the Princess Mary, their majestes only
daughter, enjoying for the first time A
suite of apartments of her own, which
were prepared under the supervision OF
the queen. They overlook the superb
flower gardens Of the princess was
ranging in them all the interesting
knick knacks and presents which she
has acquired since her childhood
special provision being made for her
collection Of dolls, in which, although
seventeen years Of age, she still takes
an interest.
Prince Albert shared rooms with his
brother, the Prince of Wales. Owing to
the fact that the second son of the king
who is in the navy has yet TO spend
two more years away from home it
has not yet been thought expedient
to prepare a second suite for him.
One of the sights of the park was
TO see the young princess and her
brothers galloping about on their
ponies. Before the arrival of the ell
der boys, Princess Mary and Prince
Henry and George would have a daily
race, and invariably George, who is
the youngest, would win.
Steamer Cessna 3 p. m.