Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-11
ABANDON CANCER
CURE BY RADIUM
Or. w. H. Mayo Advises Speedy
Resort to Knife-"Pru' Man
Addresses Noted Surgeons.

abandoned by some of the foremost
surgeons and research workers Of the
country. who declared at last night
9rneeting of the American Society for
the Control OF Cancer that the tall
ures of radium outnumber the cures
100 to 1.
That nothing is Of avail against
the most dreaded disease but the
speedy use of the knife was the opin-
ion advanced by DR.. William H. Mayo,
Of Rochester. MINI. Operation is the
ONLY cure, but radium or ray treat
> ment is in order as temporary pal
F1Iiative where operation is impossible,
according to Dr. Francis q. Wood,
director of cancer research 1T Column
Is bia University.
s1 Failures Outnumber Cures,
Failures from radium outnumber
the cures 100 To 1, he stated An
other generation will be required to
furnish knowledge on the real cause
and actual nature Of cancer, ne sald.
Experiments for thirty-tive centuries
show that heridity plays small part,
IL any at all, in its appearance.
1t was expected that the members
of the society would have something
hopeful to report of their investisa-
tons. Instead. they admitted no
progress and held out little hope. Fhey
united in saying they had discovered
neither the cause nor the nature Oh
cancer. Then they proved by stalls
ties that cancer is on the increase.
That a change in the habits ana
npstoms may reduce the disease 10
some extent was a ray Of nope held
out by DIR. Mayo, who also SAID any
cancer could be cured IL opefaleu
upon in its early stages.
Prudential statistician on Cancer.
Frederick L. Hoffman, statistician
of the Prudential Insurance Com
pany, participated in the symposium
on the campaign against cancer.
Mr.. Hoffman strongly insisted thal
cancer is on the increase, and that 1t
never increased more rapidly IN the
history of the world and in the MS
tory of large centres OF population
than it is increasing at the present
time. He declared that DR.. Blash-
ford, the eminent London authority,
was entirely wrong in his contention
that the disease is not on the IN
crease. He continued:
IF the statement, frequently made,
that the annual cancer death rate in
the United States is increasing at the
rate of ~ per cent, or % per cent.
In a decade, is not true then the
public is needlessly alarmed, and the
- assertion should be set aside by the
results of a thoroughly impartial and
qualified inquiry. 1t is true that we
have not a complete registration sys
tenn for the United States, and that
the estimate of $4,000 deaths from
lztancer per annum in this country is
Ionly based upon the available data
for the registration area, which in
cludes SO per cent. of the total popu-
nlation All conclusions of this kind
aim only at approximate accuracy, |
for the absolute truth regarding NOR !
{. tally by causes is unobtainable in
any country, and at any time For |
all practical purposes it is fully sEf-
ficient to have the results of statis- |
teal investigations of this kind con-
form to rational standard of APP |
eproximate truth.
"The allegation, frequently made
that the recorded increase in the
s-frfof tlity from cancer is only APP
parent and not real, rests chiefly up
on the conviction that improved
diagnosis accounts chiefly for the |
change. It Is also frequently assert
red that death certification and death |
classification in this country fall la
mentally short of European stand |
ards There is no evidence whatso-
sever to substantiate the latter con-
clusion, but much to the contrary the |
proof is unassailable that, on the
whole our vital statistics are just as
trustworthy as those OF most of the
registration countries of the world"
DIR. CarreI Stops the Heart.
2 At the afternoon session of the
q, American Surgical Association at the
Hotel Astor Dr.. Alexis Carrel, of the
Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re-
search, who received the Nobel prize
for medicine in 1912. told of a modern
3 miracle of surgery performed in OPP
GRAFTON on the heart.
He later took pains in saying there
i4sswas nothing Sensational" about his
experiments, and to point out that
thus far his methods have been tried
N4only on animals. However, he said. |
the experiments had been made with
the object of applying the method To
2 human surgery.
DR.. Carrel told of taking the heart
almost literally in the hand, stopping
its acton for two and a half min
utes while delicate operations were
performed, and then releasing it to
continue its work without artificial
urging. Whatever it may have seemed
TO the gathering of distinguished
American, European and Canadian
surgeons, to The laymen this appeared
to be a browning feat of surgery
DIR. John B. Murphy. the noted Chit
cago surgeon, told of his methods in
providing new joints or obtaining
action IN old ones that had ceased to
work for one cause or another. He
exhibited young woman, one of his
3patients, who by his aid had recovered
the use of her knee joint. She lifted
her skirts and tripped gracefully
across the floor. Few of the sur
!geons cared to hazard a guess as to
which knee had been injured, and
when the young woman was asked
she drew a laugh from DIR. Murphy
by admitting that she didn't remem-
hpr