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facts taken from a paper published by Besson in the Annates D'Hygiene
Publique, January, 1923, who states that in Paris, between August, 1906
and 31st December, 1914, there had occurred 24,957 deaths from cancer.
In 3,175 houses there had occurred 2 deaths; in 708, 3 deaths; in 181,
4 deaths; in 48, 5 deaths; in 13, 6 deaths; in 2, 7 deaths; and in 1,
8 deaths. Besson discusses the question of chance and coincidence, and
he closes with the words: "There is therefore confirmation of the
opinion, widely admitted, as to the contagiousness of cancer."
Dr. Thomson has written a suggestive paper. He has dealt with a
Public Health question in an exhaustive manner commensurate with the
limits of his article.
Some Reflections on Cancer.
By The Medical Officer of Health.
The public mind is disturbed by the threat of cancer. The incidence
of cancer, we are told, is becoming greater. A scrutiny of the number
of deaths from cancer occurring during the last ten years in Deptford
affords no grounds for believing that the disease is increasing locally.
True, the deaths have increased from 121 to 146 in ten years, but this
is countered by the relative increase in the age of the population, and
by greater precision in diagnosis, arising out of the general advance in
laboratory facilities. The practitioner turns to his Borough Council's
or private laboratory every day: we speak justifiably of the science of
medicine. The flash of the surgeon's blade has long since hypnotised
the public imagination, but the steady advance of clinical and pathological
methods has raised the physician to his rightful place in public
esteem. It is not the surgeon who has bolted the door against smallpox,
typhus and enteric fever; he has played no part in the evolution
of our Factory Acts, in industrial conditions, lead poisoning, fatigue,
and so on. We look then to the physician to bring to the light of day
the parasite, the germ, which causes cancer.
It is meet that the public should receive some information as to the
viewpoint of some eminent physician on the subject of cancer. Accordingly
I have ventured to approach Sir Thomas Oliver, M.D., F.R.C.P.,
of Newcastle, who, despite a busy life as a Professor of Medicine and
Consulting Physician, has won for himself, alike by the pen and the
spoken word, a position of great eminence in the public health world.