Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-01-01
A WORD ABOUT CANCER.

COuuIly lHCTedSeu IL per cent. DuT-
ing this period the death rate peg
100000 from cancer increased 80 per
cent among males and % per cent
among females. "The extraordinary
increase in the mortality due to can
Ger in this and other countries has
long since raised that malady to the
proportions of great plague" says
an authority who wrote on this sub
ject recently. 1.-THE power of human
resistance to this disease seems to
be steadily declining" He then pro.
ceeds to predict that at the present
rate Of increase in another 25 years
cancer will cause more deaths than
tuberculosis, typhoid fever and ma
laria combined.
Scientists throughout the world are
diligently searching for the cause of
this fearful scourge of mankind, in
order that specific preventive and
cure may be found. Meanwhile ev-
cry individual should be informed
that cancer is to large degree pre-
ventable if we will but apply the
knowledge we already possess to
guard against it.
There are many theories as to the
cause of cancer the most logical one
being that advanced by a group Of
microscopists working along biologi-
cal lines. The basis of this theory is
that cancer is state of anarchy with
in the body. To be able to grasp the
theory and also to understand why the
A-ray is at all effective in cases of
cancer it is necessary to have a
thorough comprehension of the prop
osition advanced by Virchow in 1858,
which | have noted in a previous ar
t1cle; namely, that each one of the
cells composing the human body is
distinct individual possessed of all
the characteristics of life. That is
TO say, every reader of this article
is composed of many billions of indi-
viduals, each having all the powers
and faculties that the reader is con-
scious of possessing and differing in
no way save in degree. Every living
thing is constructed of these same in
dividual cells, composed of the same
protoplasm, and differs only in organ
iZation.
According to the above mentioned
theory of cancer, for some reason one
of these individual cells declares it's
| independence of all the rest of the
body, refuses longer to cooperate and
goes on strike. We do not know
whether the body makes any effort
to cast the striker out of the commu-
nifty or not; but however that may
be the unruly cell proceeds to pro-
liferate-that is to say, it multiplies
by dividing, one cell splitting into
two, the two into four the four into
eight and so on, thus rJItiplying be-
yond all normal limitations end so,
growing inordinately, wrecks the en-
| tire organism.
1t is during the first few years and
more particularly during the first year
of life that the highest human NOR
tality takes place. The newly pro-
| liberated cells are not thoroughly or
ganiZed and the entire organism is
| therefore weak and unstable Ordi-
narily we do not think of working
| young children or animals, beause we
know that their tissues are soft and
therefore that they may very easily
be broken down and ruined; but at
maturity we know there is a more per-
feet organization, the cells are more
fixed, stable and adaptable and are
therefore highly resistant. This fact
| forms the basis for the action of the
X-rays on cancer.
There is no remedy known to medi-
cine that has a selective influence,
there Is nothing that can be put into
these bodies of ours that will drive
disease out and not touch healthy
tissues. But, depending on the state
of the individual cell vitality, tissues
react differently to the same infiu-
ence; hence tissues having marked
power of proliferation are necessarily
composed of masses of these young or
Juvenile" cells and are of course vast
ly more susceptible to any influence
than are the more fully formed and
stable adult" cells which may often
remain unchanged for years.
An anarchist CELL finds a favora-
BILE location and proceeds to prolifer-
ate; that is to say, 1t multiplies by
division, as all the somatic cells do,
and these young and weak cells form
what is technically known as "juve-
nile" tissue within the more stable,
older, or adult tissue of the organ
in which the cancerous process is Ia
king place. If now the hard" very
penetrating rays of the X-ray are
turned upon this diseased area one
of two things takes place-either the
short, sharp oscillations, which we
have noted approximate more than
O0,OOOOOO,OOO per second, shake these
weak Juvenile" cells into healthful
reaction, or they destroy them as a
dog kills rat by shaking 1t, and the
healthy cells are stimulated by the
light