Tropic of Cancer

“ He remarks, “We see from this comparison in what a great degree the death rate from cancer has increased in foreigners as compared to the native born, in whom the disease has remained about stationary, when the increase in population is considered.” Another writer remarks that when native Australians mingle with foreigners as servants or employés, and adopt their diet and customs, cancer occurs more frequently in them. Much the same has been reported in regard to other peoples and nationalities, and later we will consider the influences of urban life on the production of cancer. ”

“ The United States, unfortunately, has not kept the vital statistics of the country in years past with anything like the fullness and accuracy which has obtained in England, nor even at the present time is it possible to learn definitely the frequency and increase of cancer in every locality. But all the statistics which have been gathered show unequivocally that the disease has steadily increased in a manner which is alarming. ”

“ Many cities, of course, show a higher death rate from cancer than the average, owing in part to the number of patients coming for treatment, and also to the more complex life of the cities, with the greater temptations leading to the disturbances of metabolism causing cancer. Thus, the average of twenty large cities gives a rise in death rate of cancer from 48.6 from 1881 80to 1885, to 89.3 per 100,000 living in 1913. ”

“ We have seen in the former lecture that cancer is not a definite something, from without, that attacks the human frame, but that it is only a faulty development and action of certain body cells, which were once normal, with a steady decline in bodily health which tends to a fatal issue in a very large proportion of those once affected with the disease. ”

“ A careful investigation of these houses has commonly found them to be old, moldy, damp, badly ventilated, and otherwise unsanitary; also that such old houses are commonly tenanted by old people in succession, so that there are more at a cancer age to be affected. With our present knowledge of the causes which lead up to cancer we cannot but conclude, therefore, that the occurrence of the disease in groups, with some apparent connection, has been only the result of all living under the same conditions of ill health, including wrong diet, etc. ”

“ Investigations of late years, however, might seem to indicate that cancer is more prevalent in India than previously supposed, but its incidence still bears no real relation to that in many other countries, and an analysis of some recent reports explains in an interesting and curious manner the reasons for the diversity of opinion as to the actual frequency of the disease. ”

“ If we should add the mourning mothers and friends, it would make a cortége extending across the continent."
While the death rates from acute diseases have been greatly reduced, the rates from chronic diseases have been steadily increasing. Cancer is one of the chronic diseases apparently on the increase. ”

“ He recognizes that any far-reaching, environmental 60change of some duration is probably potent in disturbing the stability of the constituents of living bodies, and the sudden change from poverty to riches and plenty is conducive to the development of cancer: allusion has already been made to the inverse relation of deaths from cancer and tuberculosis, the latter diminishing with improved material conditions, while the former increases as wealth and indolence increase. ”

“ First, among the more backward population, a certain proportion would die of internal cancers difficult to diagnose, without the cause being recognized, owing to insufficient medical treatment. Second, the general death rate would be higher. More children and young people would die of infectious or preventable disease, leaving fewer survivors to die of cancer in middle and old age. Wherever, on the other hand, a public is medically educated, and typhoid, smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis claim fewer victims, the proportion of those dying of cancer, nephritis, heart diseases, increases. ”

“ In former years malaria was believed to have an influence in the production of cancer, 22and some investigators have thought to trace the prevalence of the disease to telluric influences, showing a preponderance of cases along certain water courses, or in certain streets or houses ”

“ The blond Nordic race, however, seems to be more susceptible to the disease than the darker races, originally of Asiatic origin; and it is the former who have pushed forward modern civilization, with all its errors of life.
Thus cancer is everywhere reported to be rare, and sometimes almost absent, in primitive, uncivilized peoples, but it has been repeatedly observed, in many localities, that as these same people mix with Europeans and adopt their diet and mode of life, cancer is sure to increase, until its frequency often about equals that in their highly civilized neighbors. ”

“ The North American Indians also are believed to be almost exempt from cancer in their primitive savage condition, but as they have come under the 68influence of civilization they are more affected. It has also been noted by several observers that immigrants and their descendants present a very much higher mortality from malignant diseases than prevails in their native countries; from these and other considerations Williams suggests that abrupt change of environment may also be a factor in the causation of this disease. ”

“ For example, we have formerly classed cancer as an organic disease and consequently incurable by mental means. The question is now asked, "Is cancer an organic disease, or is it some functional derangement of the epithelium tissue which causes it to grow indefinitely until it invades some vital organ?"
A further question arises due to further study. Some of the latest investigators claim that most if not all persons have cancer at some time in life, but that anti-toxin or some other remedy is supplied by the body itself, and the growth is stopped and the tissue absorbed. ”

“ Referring now to the data presented in the second lecture, in regard to the frequency and geographical distribution of cancer, we can understand better, on scientific grounds some of the reasons why cancer is so steadily increasing in civilized communities, and why in some sections of the earth it is less common, while certain 116aborigines have seemed to be almost immune. ”

“ We have already seen that with utter medical neglect the death rate of cancer has steadily and greatly increased in the United States, of late years, in spite of the prodigious advances of surgery during the same time. This is also true in all the countries from which we have any accurate statistics. We know also that tuberculosis, as a result of careful medical attention, has decreased in mortality by almost as great a percentage as cancer has increased. The same is reported by reliable observers all over the civilized world. ”

“ The location of the lesion has also a bearing upon the understanding of statistics. Thus in Norway, for some unexplained reason, cancer of the stomach caused the great mortality of 60 per cent (66.9 males, 52.9 females) of all cancer mortality, while cancer of the breast caused but 7.6 and of the uterus 16.2 per cent of the whole, the general rate being 93.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. In the United States, in 1914, cancer of the stomach and liver caused the deaths of 37.9, cancer of the breast 10, and cancer of the female genital organs 14.2 per cent of all deaths from cancer. ”

“ For when it is universally realized that it is the errors of life, determined and accentuated by advanced civilization, so-called, which lead up to and cause cancer, and when public education has been advanced along correct lines, the tendency to cancer will diminish and there will be fewer cases, either operable or inoperable. The former will melt away under correct internal and external measures, and the latter will be helped by, or slowly yield to the same, unless the malignant process has already progressed beyond the possibility of retrogressive metabolism. ”

“ Thus, all are pretty well agreed that cancer is not contagious or infectious, that it is not caused by a micro-organism or parasite, that it is not wholly due to local injury, that it does not appertain to any particular occupation, that it is not hereditary to any great degree, that it does not especially belong to or affect any particular sex, race or class of persons, nor is it confined to any location or section of the earth, and that it is not wholly a disease of older age. ”

“ By attending to the symptoms they might then attack the disease before it becomes fully developed, when it "often produces the most miserable objects of human wretchedness;" and when it frequently becomes impossible to say, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further."
CANCER, ITS NATURE AND SYMPTOMS.
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Cancer is, unfortunately, one of those desperate diseases to which the human frame is liable, and more to be dreaded than any other, inasmuch as it is insidious in its approach, and destructive to the greatest degree when it is perfectly developed. ”

“ We continue to gather information indicating that life-style and environment play a significant part in the incidence of cancer. Today there is a growing awareness of carcinogens and radiation as causative factors in cancer development. We recognize more fully the importance of diet and nutrition as factors in the development and prevention of this disease. As we evaluate the incidence of cancer among various groups of people, we may be able to identify substances that can have a chemopreventive effect on the population as a whole. ”

“ If the future offers any hope for the real cure or prevention of cancer, is it not in the way of careful and patiently conducted experiments with diet, drugs, etc.? Who is better fitted for the study of cancer as a disease than the dermatologist, who has devoted his attention to the study and management of the system as influenced by such constitutional conditions as gout, rheumatism and scrofula, and such poisons as malaria, leprosy and syphilis? ”

“ The disease does not always return to the part where the former tumour was taken away, but more frequently in the neighbourhood, and sometimes at a considerable distance. Upon a relapse, the disease in those I saw was more violent, and made a much quicker progress than it did in others on whom no operation had been performed."—I believe the whole medical profession are of the same opinion; in fact, those gentlemen are candid enough to acknowledge that cancer is a disease over which their art has no control. ”

“ It has also been noted that the older geological formations are free from the disease and that an occasional inundation does not seem to be a factor. Altogether there seems to be some ground for assuming a connection between cancer and soil conditions, at any rate until scientists have determined the real cause of the disease in those localities where it is now so markedly prevalent. ”

“ Climate and Locality.—There is no evidence to prove that climate has any influence in the production of cancer, nor is it affected by locality; the disease occurs in hot, warm, temperate, and cold climates, and in every possible location on the earth. But it is undoubtedly most prevalent in temperate regions, for the reason that it is in these that modern civilization, with all its faults and foibles, is most highly developed. ”

“ Food and Mode of Life.—In my former lectures I presented very fully the evidence that cancer was certainly a disease of civilization, its frequency and mortality advancing steadily in proportion as various tribes or peoples, previously exempt, have come more or less under its influence and adopted its manners and customs. ”

“ Of all known diseases in this country, cancer is probably the most feared. Recent statistics indicate that 700,000 cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States in 1978 and that 390,000 Americans will die of some form of the disease this year. Only through continued support of cancer research and control can we reduce these figures. ”

“ We are confronted with the problem of how to limit the frequency of the disease, and the difficulty of this is apparent in view of the fact that we know almost nothing of its origin. Cancer, as I have said, is not contagious; it stands almost alone as a disease which increases with our prosperity, and, while our health laws are raising the standard of public health, the mortality from cancer stands forth as a blot upon the results, detracting in part at least from the measure of the success that has thus far been obtained. ”

“ Cancer strikes minority groups in many ways. Cancer incidence and mortality are higher for blacks than for whites, while survival rates are lower and diagnosis during the early, localized, most treatable stages of cancer is less frequent. Black men are particularly vulnerable, but black women have high rates of lung and cervical cancer. The incidence of lung, stomach, prostate, and esophageal cancer is higher for blacks than for others. Cancer rates for Hawaiian males and females top those of other Americans. ”

“ Just as Röntgen rays and certain chemicals, so may also light rays under certain conditions be the cause of cancer, especially in sailors, in whom sometimes the skin of that part of the body which is exposed to the light shows certain changes which lead gradually to the development of cancer. We notice also occasionally in old people and in rare cases even in young men in the face and on the hands, in parts therefore exposed to the action of the light rays, the development of multiple lesions, which in the course of time become transformed into carcinoma. ”