El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-02-07

past has been attacked from every pos
sible point OF view by scientific investi-
gators IN all parts OF the world. For a
long time it has been known that many
animals besides man were liable to the
complaint, which has been studied In
rats and mice, and in various other
animals. The laboratory at Buffalo has
recently sought enlightenment through
an inquiry specially directed to cancer
in fishes, and from this source the most
striking and Illuminating discoveries
have proceeded.
1t started with a visit paid by DR..
Harvey r. Gaylord, director of the
laboratory, to a fish hatchery IN New
York state, where an alarming epidemic
had broken out among the brook trout.
The malady took the form of a malig-
nant tumOr at the junction of the gills,
which proved on examination to be a
true cancer. 1t was present in no fewer
than zoo fish, and began with a swell
ing of the thyroid gland in the throat
IN other words, a gOlter.
The same disease, it was ascertained.
had for a long time seriously affected
several OF the government hatcheries
las well as those belonging to various
states where trout were propagated.
Pursuit OF the inquiry led, later on, to a
Joint investigation of the subject by the
Buffalo laboratory and the government
fisheries bureau, involving many inter
esting and instructive experiments.
To start with. there was no question
that the trouble was cancer. Under the
microscope. the structure of the growths
was indistinguishable from that of the
kind of malignant tumor which in man
is known as carcinoma"
Water Cau1es Cancer Germs.
Now. one thing that quickly excited at
+or14Tor, Ahn fart fhof Vrrbcr-o
trout occupied a pond which received
its water supply from another pond
containing generous fish. they soon he
came themselves infected with the dis
ease. And the phenomenon was obvious
in exaggerated degree when there was
a series of such connected ponds-each
pond developing a higher percentage
of infected trout than the one above it,
until the disease was at its worst in
the lOwermOst of all. This seemed to
point plainly enough to a concentration
of cancer germs carried BY the water
from pond to pond downward
In short, the evidence of germ infec-
ton was overwhelming; and it was
manifest that the invisible parasite re-
sponsible for the mischief was carried
bv water A small quantity of iodine
or arsenic, or mercury, introduced into
the ponds, had a tendency to check the
growth of the tumors, but the effect
was obviously of a therapeutic (medici-
nall character merely.
Cancer of the thyroid seems to be
permanently established as a disease Of
the salmindae-i e., the various species
Of trouts and salmOns-at fish hatcher
les over the greater part of the United
States Rainbow trout Matched in New
Zealand from American eggs. have in
that country developed the same disease
showing, apparently, tina 1.-THE germs
were transported with them half way
around the world
It has been suggested that domestica-
ton is responsible for the maladv. but
this cannot be true because cancer of
the thyroid appears occasionally in wild
trout. At the same time. domestication
undoubtedly helps the disease to spread.
With the incidental crowding and di-
minished supply Of water per fish. there
must be a lessening of resistance