The bearing of comparative and experimental investigation on the association of some forms of cancer with chronic irritation / by E.F. Bashford.

  • Bashford, E. F. (Ernest Francis), 1873-
Date:
[1914?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The bearing of comparative and experimental investigation on the association of some forms of cancer with chronic irritation / by E.F. Bashford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Royal Sanitary Institute.] The Bearing^ of comparative and experimental investigation on the association of some forms of cancer with chronic irritation, by E. F. Bashford, M.D., Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Being Abstract of Lecture to Institute, delivered on Wednesday, April 29th, 1914. (Illustrated by Lantern Slides.) Ten years ago I wrote a paper^ for the Congress of this Institute, held in Glasgow, in which the possible value of the comparative study of cancer was urged. This fact determined me in choosing a title for what I have to say this afternoon, and which, although not now new, will enable you to see the progress made since I last addressed you. The comparative and experiuiental study of cancer during the past ten years has had very far reaching effects on our knowledge of the disease. By comparative investigation I mean the study of cancer in all the races of mankind inhabiting the British Empire, living under very different conditions as regards climate, soil, and diet, and of cancer throughout the vertebrates, whether living in a state of nature or under domesti¬ cation, and also the experimental study of the disease in a large number of different species, especially of the mammalia. In the laboratories of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, true new growths have been transplanted in the dog, in the rabbit, in the guinea pig, in the rat, and in the mouse. In addition, growths of doubtful nature have been studied in the dog and in the fowl. For reasons of convenience, by far the greater proportion of experimental observations has been made on the mouse. The life of this animal is very short, the animal is prolific, it is cheap, and many thousands can be conveniently housed. Hence the extension of experimental observations to such animals as the dog, rabbit, guinea pig, and rat has, up to the present, had its chief value in demonstrating that the results are not restricted to the mouse, but, since they apply to the dog, they will in all probability apply also to man. Observation of the disease in different races of mankind has brought into prominence a number of instances in which its anatomical distribution as known in Europe was singularly altered by the practice of native customs. For example, cancer of the skin of the abdomen was found to occur with great frequency in India, and cancer of the mouth was found to be as fre¬ quent in women as in men, both of these circumstances being quite different from what is known in Europe. Many other instances can be stated, but perhaps even more instructive are similar observations on * The comparative study of cancer, Vol. XXV., 1904, of the Journal of the Sanitary Institute.