View report page

92
1908]
"These are a few of the so-called" practical ' results of the past five
years' work with experimental cancers. They are selected under protest
as, superficially, the most important, but they are only a few among a
large number of new facts, any one of which may at any time prove to be
the real clue to the final successful attack on the cure of human cancer.
"Even to the layman it must be apparent that these facts were
obtainable in no other way than by the experimental method; that they
constitute genuine progress into the dark domain of the principles of
cancer growth and cancer immunity; and that these principles must be
mastered before the cure of cancer in man can be devised or even
attempted. How far off the cure of human cancer may be, no one can
say, but it is certain that the outlook, from the deep gloom pervading
scientific circles in 1900, has, by the introduction of the experimental
method, been transformed into a prospsct full of suggestion and hope.
According to Ehrlich, the leader in German cancer research, the beginning
of the end of the cancer problem is in sight. How long that end may be
delayed will depend much on the attitude of the public toward the experimental
method in medical and biological research. Since the
systematic employment of animal experimentation in cancer research has
been endorsed by the leading scientific bodies in every civilized nation,
those who are engaged in this work in America look forward with confidence
to the hearty and continuous moral support of every intelligent
person."
Thus we see that there is hope that, before long, there will be found
some cure for the most malignant and hopeless disease human beings
are subject to.