Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1925-03-18
GERMAN FINDS
CANCER CAUSE
After Eight Year Search
Germ is Discovered by
Berlin Professor.
BY DIR. O. p. JACOB, NJ. D.

6ERLlN-IrOI. F6rQlndQQ Blum0n-
thai of the medical faculty of the
Berlin university has announced the
discovery of the germ cause of can
cer-sought for years by the scien-
fists of the world. The standing and
prestige of Prof. Blumenthal vouch
for the authenticity of his deductions.
Cancer has been the object of the
most interchangeable research. Nom
scientific and even certain scientific
charlatans, who for purposes of self
advertising profess to have found an
Invaluable cure for cancer, may be
safely left out of consideration. The
medical world at large, however, has
been seeking necessarily for the eX-
citing cause of this gruesome mai
ady. For without such knowledge
radical treatment it not to be under
taken, and consequently, no cure to
be expected.
There is always the surgeons knOfe,
of course, with which undoubtedly
some marvellous results have been OBJ
tanned. But such treatment is at best
btu local one and therefore not rad
ical For in 80 cases out of 100, re
lapses in other parts of the body are
likely to occur after the operation.
Before Medical Body
1t became incumbent therefore, to
seek for the exciting cause, be it a
germ or some other more external
factor.
But thus far all medical research
sought in vain for such an exciting
germ cause of cancer in human be-
ings And gradually the belief in its
existence seemed to have ceased.
Thus far all reported discoveries of
cancer bacillus proved erroneous.
Prof. Blumenthal spent eight years
in concentrated research before he
could give his findinges to the world.
At the last meeting of the German
medical society Prof. Blumenthal dem
onstrated the result of his investiga-
tions in 16 cancer cases. With the
assistance of his co-OperatOrS, Hans
Auler and Paula Meyer, he succeeded
in cultivating from human cancer
growths bacilli with which cancer was
produced in certain of the yower ami
mails after incubation. The bacilli
which has has found closely recemble
the micrO-organisms discovered by the
American investigator, Smith, as the
exciting cause of cancer OF plants, the
, sO-called bacterium tumefaciens.
Three Germ Groups
But as Prof Blumenthal does not
wish to awaken premature hopes nor
to have it appear that he is drawing
hasty conclusions, he took the oppor-
tunity of summarizing for the public
the following facts:
He discovered three groups of bac-
oh
group is identical with the bacterium
tumefaciens previously isolated, while
the other two groups have nothing in
common with the known bacteria, nor
do they in the least resemble each
other. In other words, not alone was
the bacterium tumefaciens found, but
a group of exciting bacteria of which
three varieties have been isolated.
Prof Blumenthal considers it pos
sible that these bacteria may not be
the exciting cause intrinsically but
the conveyors of the invisible cancer
poison. But even such a fact would
not make the discovered bacteria less
significant. For when it comes to the
treatment, killing the bacteria would
be identical with destroying the poison
they convey.
Known as Parasite
In the experimental cultivation of
the cancer growth it was found nee
essary to add an irritant such as
silicate, with lymph as culture
fluid. This proves that another fac
tor besides the bacteria is concerned
in producing the cancerous growth.
1t would seem that both these fac
tors-the internal disposition and the
eXteral irritatiOn-must act in con-
junction to produce cancer.
The bacteria discovered act as irri-
tants on connective tissues and gland
cells and through a secretory process
transform them into cancer cells.
This is the first time that this irri-
tating cause has been found in
tumOrs, recognized as a parasite and
subsequently cultivated in culture
fluid. And it is but logical to con-
slider this irritant as the exciting
cause of cancerOus growths.
Seek Other Causes
But it does not follow by any
means that the cancer irritantS dis
covered are the only cause of the
disease. 1t is quite possible that
other nonparasitic causes are to be
taken into consideration such as
cancer formations after scalds, poi
soning with aniline dyes, tar and the
like. 1t is even possible that the bac-
terra discovered do not represent the
only parasitic cause of cancer. AS
in the case of the pus producing bac
terra, several categories of parasites
may be concerned. Nor is it I'M
likely, as before mentioned, that the
discovered bacteria are the carriers