The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1915-01-19
pERIpEs CANCER HOUSES
DR.. Z. r. Bashford Says Cancer Is Meth
er Infectious Nor Hereditary.

| Ni AhitNNiVuo 'uA AiShNuiAaAts
There has been considerable discussion
recently of the old question of cancer
houses and cancer streets" State
ments by eminent investigators, which
have been given wide currency, have
tended to strengthen the impression that
there are houses and streets where the
disease occurs with unusual frequency,
the implication being that a relation OF
some kind exists and that cancer is in
some way an infectious disease. This
view and the alleged evidence to support
IL were vigorously attacked by DIR. Z. +.
Bashford the general director Of the
work of the Imperial Cancer Research
fund. in his report to the annual meeting
Of the fund.- held in London in July.
According to DIR. Bashford, cancer
houses, in the sense that people living in
them become infected, are as much OF a
myth as "cancer cages" in the case OF
animals, and he hopes that these fancied
dangers will cease alike to alarm the
public and divert the energies OF investi-
gators from truthful lines of inquiry
According to Dr. Bashford the public is
misled by statements based on simple
enumeration of houses in which one, two,
or three, or more cases of cancer had oc-
Cured. Such an inquiry can be only pre-
liminary to an accurate determination of
whether cancer is really more frequent
in one house than in another. To reach
the true conclusion it would be neces-
sary to consider all the details of the
population, not only of the cancer
houses" but also of the other houses in
the same neighborhood as to age, sex,
nature and site of the disease, duration
OF stay, occupation ana habits Some
houses might be sought after by old
people because of low rental or house
might be let to couples without children
or it might be frequented by aged lodg-
ers. Even if it were scientifically estab-
lished that cancer ia more frequent in
certain houses, it would be fallacious to
Jump to the conclusion that cancer is in
fictitious. In all such inquiries we must
not overlook the great frequency of the
disease, especially in adult life, and the
part which ordinary chance would play
in counting up cases in certain houses
and certain localities. As Dr. Bashford |
points out, the British statistics for 1911 |
show that out of total Of l45,703 deaths |
Of males over 35 years OF age, l4,963 died |
Of cancer, and out of l45,270 deaths of |
females over 35 years of age, 1858 died !
Of cancer. 1t is easy to calculate there
from that the chance that man over 35 |
will die from cancer is one in 81, and /
ior woman over 49, one in IA. 1t would
indeed be strange If this large number of
ieaths from cancer were distributed
,venly and it is perfectly natural to sup
lose that some houses and some families
would exhibit many more cases, and
night even by the laws of chance CON
inue to exhibit a high rate over long
periods of time. The conclusion that
ANGER is either infectious or hereditary
would, on such evidence, be unwarranted.
,ir Thomas Oliver in a recent address
eferred to one street in which between
1913 and 1908, 10 persons and one dog
lad died of cancer. Careful examination
hows that the death rate of this street
vas only a little above the average for
he whole country.