Evening star., 1939-09-12
New x-Ray.Device
Permits Direct
Cancer Treatment
Long and Slender Tube
Can Focus Beums
Through Mouth
Nv HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associaved Press Science Editor.

Inrou9n Mouth
By HOWARD w. BLAKESLEE,
Associaved Press Science Editor.
ATLANTIC CITY, N. j., Sept. IL.
-x-rays can be taken literally by
the mouthful with new tube shown
today to the third International
Cancer Congress.
The tube Is long and slender, about
the size and proportions of child's
toy horn. The rays are produced
at the tip, in the area that would
be the mouthpiece of the horn.
The tube Is made to be inserted
into the mouth or any other body
cavity, and also through surgical
openings directly into the stomach
or abdomen. In this way it puts
the rays in almost direct contact,
within fraction of an inch, of can
cerous growths.
Saves Healthy Tissue.
The purpose is to avoid the burn
ing of healthy tissue which occurs
when X-rays have to pass through
such tissues to reach cancerous
growths deeper in the body. The
burning effect, which is also the
healing effect, is confined mostly to
the malignant growth itself.
Trying to solve the puzzle why
some persons seem immune to can
Ger while others are susceptible,
three New Haven scientists reported
new experiment on mice. They
are Ashley w. Oughterson, Robert
Tennant and Edwin A. Lawrence.
They artificially created cancers
Of the breast in mice by injecting
excessive doses of a sex hormone.
When these cancers were trans
planted by surgery into healthy mice
of the same breed, the animals
caught the cancers 100 per cent.
Hybrids Were Harder.
They then crossed the breed of
mice in which the cancers had been
created with a different strain and
tried transplanting the malignant
growths into the offspring of these
hybrids.
Immediately there was a notable
difference. The children of the hy-
brids were partly resistant. Sur
gical transplantation frequently
failed to give them cancer. More
over, when the cancers did take
on the hybrids, they were cured
much more easily by X-rays than
we're the original "hosts" in which
this cancer had originated. j..
The experiment showed that g
living body is capable of building
up resistance to cancer What this
resistant substance may be is not
known When the cancer-resistant
substance Is present, X-rays ap'
pear able to stimulate it considerably
In throwing off malignant growths
Peyton Rouse and Ian Mackenzie
Of New York, reported animal ex.
periments showing fact which
they said hitherto has been over.
looked. This is that cancer start
most easily In a place where ther,
has been an injury than wher'
there has been none.
Electric Field in Living Body.
The first scientific proof that ther'
Is . personal electric field, a sort o
electrical aura, within and in tn,
air around living body, was an
nounced In a report made by d.
Harold s. Burr Of Yale Universlt.
and he explained how 1t opens I
new field for the study Of the caus
Of cancer.
DR.. Burr discovered the persona
~f1eld" by initiating, with a livin'
animal substituted for magnet
the famous experiment by which tn
great English scientist, Michae
Faraday, discovered the electric cur
rent.
DR.. Burr placed a living, embry
onic salamander between the tip
Of two electric terminals. Thes'
represented the coil Of faraday
Then he rotated the salamander
that is, spun it like a top. Alternat
ing electric current thereupol
flowed In the wire.
Controls Chemical Processes.
Because of the known electrica
properties of living tissue cells, Dr.
Burr said that the existence of al
electrical field In living body ha
been predicted. This is the frs
experiment demonstrating the field
DR.. Burr said it may be possibl
that these electrical fields determin
'in a very real sense the structural
character Of the organism. This i'm
plies that in normal growth and de
velopment the field controls and reg
ulates the chemical processes in
volved In the formation of structure
units"
1t follows, he added, that any dis
turbanee in the electrical field, If Q
enough magnitude, will upset tn
growth Of the tiny, microscopic tissu
cells which compose all living bodie!
If, he declared, the presence Q
this field can be authenticated an
extended, the problem Of cancer be
comes one of finding out the cause
- Ar@oLJoxryvoc IN tho or0o nj en-,