Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-14
BY DIR. FRANCIS CARTER WOOD.


N YoT so very long ago a famous
surgeon said that the expert
" mental study of cancer had con-
4 tributed no facts of practical
value to the subject. The next
morning he entered his operating room
and put on gown and rubber gloves,
the methods of sterilization of which
had been checked by a bacteriologist.
He approached the patient, whose skin
had been sterilized by chemical de-
vised by a laboratory man. He picked
up knife of stainless steel, the pro-
duction of which represented years of
laboratory research on the nature of al
Toys of steel with some of the rare
metals He cut out piece of the tu-
NOR which he had been unable to dag
nose by clinical methods, and asked the
pathologist standing by to tell him its
nature.
He did this because It had been
shown by laboratory worker that cut
ting into animal tumors was a safe
procedure under certain conditions and
therefore was possible in human beings
under similar restrictions. The pathol-
ogist, using a microscope whose per-
lection was due to the calculations of
mathematician who never saw q hui
man patient, told the surgeon that the
tumor was a cancer, and assured him
that the patient was already beyond
surgical cure because some of the tu-
NOR had invaded a blood vessel and
spread to parts of the body which were
inaccessible to surgery.
The surgeon stopped his operation,
after removing the tumor itself, and
referred the patient to a radiologist for
prophylactic treatment in order to delay
the return of the growth as long as
possible. During all this time he was
careful not to handle the tumor, be-
cause of the laboratory demonstration
that such handling of a malignant
growth may massage the cells around
the body and Immediately render the
patient incurable.
Aided by X-Ray Tube.
The radiologist began the treatment
of the patient with an X-ray tube in
vented by a laboratory man who also
had never seen a human patient. He
was able to give the correct dose of
X-ray and avoid burning the patient
because of measuring apparatus also
invented in the laboratory, and this
measuring apparatus had been stand
ardized by a zoologist using the eggs of
a small fly as a suitable measuring OBJ
ject to test with extreme accuracy the
output of this particular X-ray appa-
ratus.
So, In spite of this surgeons attitude,
| the scientific study of cancer is going
on in laboratories and hospitals all
over the civilized world. The very
mystery of the disease has an extraor-
binary attraction for scientists To
/ spread information concerning the
| most recent discoveries, which have
| immediate Importance in the treatment
and diagnosis of cancer, active organi-
cations have been formed in all the
important countries of Europe and
America. Such societies have assumed,
as one of their important duties, popu-
lar education in the early symptoms of
the disease, so that people may go
promptly to physiciarl-for only early
cancer Is durable at present. The
methods which are now used to cure
cancer are crude and ineffective COM
pared with those used to cure malaria,
syphilis, diphtheria or meningitis. They
have nearly reached their limit Of eff
future hope for aiding advanced can
cer-and q majority are advanced
when seen at present, despite educa-
tion-is by the laboratory discovery OF
some different means of treatment
The fundamental basis for such treat
ment is the fullest knowledge of the
nature of the cancer cell.
This last Summer few scientists met
in Amsterdam, calling themselves a
Cell Congress. The members came
from all over Europe and America.
They read complicated papers to each
other in various languages about their
studies of living cells. Many of these
papers touched upon the boundaries
of our knowledge as related to the ma
| ture of cancer. AS an illustration of
how such cell studies touch cancer, we
may consider a cancer, which is made
up Of innumerable cells, as a great city
of millions of inhabitants which we can
survey only from an airplane because
1t Is populated largely by dangerous
criminals. We see the huge buildings,
new ones. going up, little black specks
walking in the streets, q fire, trains
moving, carrying SpeckS away from the
city to suburban places. but we can
never learn anything about the 1ndi-
vidual specks who build and live In this
city.
Now, a cancer is just like such city.
| It is composed of millions of cells. It
has streets, which are the blood vessels.
1t has q telephone system composed Of
nerves. 1t has mixed population COM
posed of criminals and harmless folk.
Sometimes the criminals take train
and go to the country and there found
a new city of bootleggers and gunner
who do great property damage and de-
stroy the peaceful people living in the
vicinity.
Few Always Make Escape.
The streets of our city occasionally
are blocked by the actions of some of
the gunner, and the buildings fall
down and the inhabitants debut they
never all die. There are always a few
who escape and keep on carrying on
their warfare against the useful popula-
| ton in the region of the city.
| Now, it is important to learn how to
destroy this great city in order to save
I the country roundabout from the action
OF these brigands. How shall we find
out what sort of poison gas is destruc-
tive to the criminals of the city, yet
will leave honest inhabitants undam-
aged? Certainly not from our airplane
In some way we must capture samples
of the good and bad and study them so
that we can find out how they live,
what they eat, and to what poisons they
| are susceptible, before the evil can be
destroyed and the good protected.
The surgery of cancer Is like drop
ping an enormous quantity of dynamite
on the city, destroying 1t and all its
| inhabitants and leaving nothing but q
huge, useless hole. X-ray and radium
| also are destructive agents setting free
their energy, which destroys both the
healthy and unhealthy at the same
time, only too often leaving behind a
group of criminals from which the city
may be repopulated. The work of the
Cell Congress was to capture a few of
the city's inhabitants and put them I'M
der observation.
In other words, there is no use look
ing at a patient with large tumor in
| order to find out its nature A piece may
be cut out and examined under the
microscope. But the thin stained slices
of tumor which the scientist studies I'M
der his microscope are made up of dead
| cells. A useful diagnosis Of the kind of
tumor may be made from such slices,
but nothing can be learned NJ the lifn