The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-16
6 MEATS CANCER FALLACY
NEWLY PUBLISHED BOOK BY NEW YORK
 PHYSICIAN.

Unrelfahflity of Statistics
 Early Operation Need of
 Popular Education.
 Insuared by the splendid success that has aTtended the campaign of educa- non against tuberculosis. there is nuch talk of the need of a similar pazupaagn against cancer. In fact, soctety for the prom o9ion of such cd nca4iouai work has recently been orr Ean3xed But the real and crying need hRs been for available sources Of re- lsab4e up-to-date information as to wnakz1s actually known about the dis sasa
 n ir. tes this need that Dr. William Seaman Raanbridge responds in his book s~The Cancer Probleus. just pubdizhed by the Macmillan Go.
 Among other things. the apparent xraaf inorease Of cancer during recent Vears has caused widespread alarm, Ten xeaxs agn certain statistics caus- ed d phys1c1an of national repute to prophesy that within that Per1od. if the relative deafh-rates were main taaued the deaths from cancer in New $ -For1x state would aggregate moro than those from smallpox, tu beTcul osts, and fvpAoid fever coubined. pr. Bain-s bridge quoAes figures to show that there was mo real f0un dation for this pred1ct1on and InsaL 1I mas Ay 10 1n cans been fu13i11ed. More than that he demnnetxaEes that many other and elrntIax alarming statements are even Iaas based on facts.
 One of the chief sources of ignor-5 ance and alarm has been the a'bsence. or unreIiabll1ty of vitality or health statfstics In many localities we had none few years ago. and of those we had. the most were of extremely $ sdoubtfa1 value. Even today stadisti-3 cal methods in different parts of the world tdffer widely, and in pertain lines ana localities ours are still prao- Ideally woxthlesB For purposes of conpar1son many things now rarely 4abu1ated must be taken into consid- @kations aga. sex. and certain details followed in some parts of this country Of dissatisfaction by months is shown to be a grave error. An epidemic of measles, for example, would upset all proportional statistics for the time be- ing.
 avai1abIes however, carefully weighing their reliability and sitting out their value as far as 1t Is possible to get at it. pr. Baanbrtdge shows that at least a part of the apparent increase Of cancer and possibly a large part of IL is due to the gradual improvenent in records made within the past if teen or twenty years.
 UnreHabuity Of Statistics
 This improvement has been greater fn England and the English colonies than elsewhere with the result that less than two years ago, at a lecture given in New York. pr. Bashford, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund London, was able to make the stafe-s ment. unchaIlenged, that he knew more about cancer among the native races of CeyIon than his audience did <7i races in their own city Although we are gradually making an improvement in OUT methods, Dr. Bainbrfdgess sta- fistical work is necessarily largely based upon English figures But wherever found, the fuller reports available each year naturally show what appears to be an alarming In crease of cancer.
 Then, too. as the age of greater Ha- tilfty has been found to be toward the 7atter years Of fife and as the average Iife-span Is known to be lengthening. some part of the apparent Increase or cancer is doubtless due to the larg- CT percentage of people who live to the cancer age. than was formerly Another popular error and one that $ constantly cropping up in our pa pers and magazines, as we'll as in pri- Vate discussion, is the belief among many that cancer is one of the penal
 
 people and animals left in their na- tive wi1ds do not have 1t
 While for this notion that soft, or high living tends to the development Of cancer Dr. Bainbridge points out @ that the disease has been found in peoples and animals living in a state sof nature. But as we have little op- lportunity to examine such people and such animals. there are necessarily few cases on record. More than that,
 
 anotorfousIy short-Ived; comparatively flew live to the cancer age"
 This question of the exemption of wild animals from cancer, and the liability to 1t of those domesticated Of E artif1ci3lIy bred, was brought prowi- nent1y to public notice a few years &ago by so-called epideInics of cancer fin hsh-hatcheries Such an epidemic. in 1910. caused such acute alarm that 1t threatened to paraIyze the Aneri- can trout-hatchery industry. English { papers at the same time took the mat ter up with great energy, wasing a mharp campaign against the importa- 4aon of American trout into that fcoun- try; and in special message to Con- agress, the president advocated the ap- opr1atfon of $50, GOO for the constr1ac- Elfion and equipment Of a Laboratory In which to study and combat the dfsease.
 Tro1b Had Goitrous ARection
 But before that was done. an Amer ican investigator. David Marine. dem onstraked that the so-cal1ed cancer epidemic in the Blooming Grove Hunting and Fish Club ut-Hatch- cry, was nothing more than a. goitrous deveIopnenf tn the ash produced by an abnorr1nal and incomplete diet, oz hogs liver and heart and that it was not cancer at all, This conclusion was corroborated by other scientists on both sides Of the water
 In a word.a the actual facts up to date are-tFat few cases Of cancer