Surgical cure of cancer of the gastro-intestinal canal / by William J. Mayo.

  • Mayo, William James, 1861-1939.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Surgical cure of cancer of the gastro-intestinal canal / by William J. Mayo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/12
    [Reprinted from The St. Paul Medical Journal, January, 1910.] By William J. Mayo, M. D., Surgeon to St. Mary's Hospital, ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA. The cancer problem is the most important which confronts mankind, and while we are perhaps no nearer its final solution so far as knowledge of its direct cause is concerned, recent in- vestigation has at least cleared away some of the fog of supposi- tion and superstition which has surrounded the subject in the past. All forms of animal life are liable to some form of cancer, and the statements made by travelers that aboriginal races do not suffer from the disease, is based upon inference and incorrect observation. The health margin of primitive people is very nar- row and the victims of cancer among them succumb quickly in the struggle for existence. The disease therefore, is but little in evidence rather than absent.’ It has been definitely shown also that cancer is not hereditary although it cannot be said positively that the soil in certain fam- ilies is not more favorable to its development than it is in others. The presumptive evidence is against direct contagion by inocu- lation although the Scoth verdict of “not proven” best describes the present status of our knowledge. During the last ten years an enormous impetus has been given to the study of cancer, by the foundation of research labor- atories. In this country they have been endowed by private philanthrophy, as in Boston, or through state aid as in Buffalo, New York, In England the active work is represented by the Imperial Cancer Commission and the Middlesex Hospital. The latter institution is to be associated with a third cancer institute to be carried out by the Barnato Fund. In Germany the Heidel- burg Cancer Institute under the charge of Czerny, is the most notable. These various institutions for cancer research have been vastly useful not only in clearing away venerable cancer legends, but in that they have accentuated certain previously known clinical facts which had not been recognized at their full value. ♦Annual Address, Kentucky State Medical Society, Oct. 19, 1909.