of life, including eating and drinking, and indolence, and careful study shows that cancer has the same origin. On the other hand, as already stated, the deaths from tuberculosis have steadily declined 7.8 per cent under rational medical treatment, directed mainly along the lines of correct nutrition: the death rate of tuberculosis and cancer have thus approached each other 56.5 per cent, and at this rate in fifteen years more the mortality from cancer will exceed that from tuberculosis!

Careful and prolonged studies of cancer patients, in both the earlier and later stages of the disease, as I have recorded elsewhere, show that there are always departures from normal metabolism, as is shown by the condition of the blood, and in the excretion from the bowels, kidneys and skin, in the salivary and hepatic secretions, and possibly in those of the ductless glands. Time does not permit here of elaborating this subject, which has been done elsewhere, but it is evident that some combination of internal systemic disorders must be recognized as the basic cause of the complaint, although at the present time it is difficult to point to a single causative element, if indeed it will ever be discovered.

But a broad view of metabolism and nutrition recognizes that all cell changes, whether good or bad, depend on the character and composition of the blood furnished to the tissues, although little definite may be known concerning it. Thus, no one has demonstrated the single causative change in the blood in arteriosclerosis, gout, rickets, scorbutus, etc., but no one questions that it exists, and we direct our therapeutic measures accordingly, largely from experience.

The same is true in cancer. Most careful and prolonged study of the patient in every respect has shown a certain uniformity in regard to particular deviations from health, the correction of which has been followed by a complete disappearance of tumors classed as malignant, so that the connection must seem obvious to an unprejudiced mind. And yet it cannot be claimed that the exact, single cause of the cancerous growth has been demonstrated, and from the nature and character of the systemic disorders found, it is evident that there can never be any single remedy which can be rightly claimed as a cure for cancer.

But that cancer can be cured by medical means and without the knife is absolutely certain, as the experience of many testify, and as the writer has observed in so many cases during the past thirty and more years. Many of the instances in the hands of others have occurred unexpectedly, and without definite or careful study and record of the measures em

ployed. But in some way the condition of the blood and system has become altered so that there has occurred a retrogressive process which resulted in the absorption of the tumor. I may say that this was the case in regard to the earlier patients in my own practice, when I observed that tumors of the breast, which had been diagnosed as cancer by surgeons, disappeared under dietetic and other measures given for some skin affection; later observation and study have crystallized my views and confirmed my methods of procedure, which I hope to make plain, as briefly as possible; lack of time to explain everything everything must make me a little dogmatic.

An absolutely vegetarian diet is the first requisite in the treatment and prophylaxis of cancer, for as mentioned, this has been found experimnetally to inhibit, often to a remarkable degree, the production of artificially produced cancer in rats and mice, and experience throughout the world has shown cancer to be extremely rare in vegetarians. This diet, which should be maintained indefinitely, must be rigorous and absolutely vegetarian, excluding animal protein, even eggs and milk; butter is the only article allowed which does not grow, and of this one-quarter of a pound is to be taken daily, by a person weighing 150 pounds. Cereals are to be freely employed, eaten slowly, with a fork, and with butter, and not with milk and sugar, though the latter may be used moderately, where it seems necessary and where it perfectly agrees with the patient. Perfect mastication, with thorough insalivation, is essential, and I insist on at least half an hour being taken for even the lightest meal. Coffee, chocolate, and cocoa are excluded from the diet, only weak tea being allowed, with some postum or other artificial substitute for coffee.

Alcohol in any and every form is absolutely excluded, as it always has a very harmful effect on cancer. Sufficient water, not iced, should be taken to answer to the needs of the system, and I commonly give half a pint with each meal, and half a pint, hot, one hour before both breakfast and the evening meal.

Cancer being a disease of advancing civilization, with all its temptations and errors in living, it is essential that the cancer subject lead a very simple and healthy life, with regular hours of eating and sleeping, with a reasonable amount of exercise, and the avoidance of everything which could disturb normal metabolism.

There is, of course, no single medicine which can cure cancer, but proper medication plays a very important part in overcoming the disease and should never be neglected or inter

rupted in any case; indeed, one suffering from or threatened with cancer should be under the most careful medical guidance indefinitely, and this is especially true after the surgical removal of the tumor, or local manifestation of the morbid process, as Abernethy so strongly asserted, nearly a hundred years ago.

Medical treatment lies mainly along the lines of elimination, which is always found to be faulty, both by the bowels and kidney. My records of large numbers of private patients show that there is imperfect intestinal secretion, both in the very early stages and late in cancer, even before morphine is taken. Therefore I have long come to look upon intestinal autointoxication as a prime factor of causation, and lately Sir Arbuthnot Lane has spoken of cancer as a terminal result of intestinal stasis. This constipation, however, is not to be met with occasional purgatives, but by measures which will secure a good normal evacuation once or oftener daily. My principal reliance for this is cascara, in combination with other remedies, although I also very often give once a week, on alternate days, two good laxatives of blue mass, colocynth, and ipecac. Mineral waters, Russian oil, etc., are not desirable, and enemata are resorted to only in emergencies.

The kidney secretion in early and late cancer is always faulty. This does not refer to albumin and casts, or sugar, which are searched for but seldom found. But very careful and repeated volumetric analysis of its many normal ingredients reveals errors in its composition which are of significance and which serve as a guide in therapy. There is always a faulty nitrogenous partition, and in that of sulphur; indican is commonly in excess, often very greatly so, and the chlorides, phosphates, and sulphates are deranged. The urinary secretion will constantly be found to be extremely deficient, both as to the actual quantity passed in the 24 hours, and in its total solid contents, which are often hardly one-half of that called for by the body weight of the patient; this I have verified by hundreds of analyses. As these errors are corrected by proper treatment there will be a coincident improvement in the vitality of the patient and in the tumor.

The remedy which I have largely relied on in these cases for many years is acetate of potassium, and it is interesting to note that Ross of London claims that a cause of cancer is found in a disturbance in the mineral contents of the blood, and that there is a lack of potassium, and he gives as high as 90 grains of phosphate and carbonate of potassium in the day, with excellent results. I commonly give the acetate in combination with other remedies, thus:

3iv

Extr. Rumicis radicis, fld. ad.

M.-Teaspoonful in water half hour before eating.

But in the long treatment necessary for these cases before the malignant growth has quite disappeared, and possibly for a good while afterward, there may be many remedies used with advantage to secure and maintain that healthy metabolism requisite to overcome the cancerous habit. Iron and arsenic, phosphates and strychnine, and even codliver oil and many reconstructive remedies and measures may bear their share in overcoming this dire disease. Thyroid extract sometimes assists materially in removing the mal-growth, but must be given with caution, and in connection with other proper remedies; for sometimes it will promote catabolism and disintegrate the diseased tissue faster than the enunctories can

effete products, and these may poison the system.

It has been difficult in a single address to present such a vast subject, which is more or less new to many, in a clear and concise form, and I fear that I have trespassed too greatly on your patience, and have yet only imperfectly made matters clear. But I shall be satisfied if I have excited your interest sufficiently to cause you to investigate the medical aspects of cancer, in which lies the real problem of its prevention and cure. Surgery has been tried faithfully by many brilliant and honest men, some of whom now and then acknowledge the failure of the knife to arrest the steadily increasing mortality from the disease, which is now about 90 per cent of all those once attacked.

But I fully realize that there is danger in my strenuous advocacy of other lines of treatment, lest these should not be fully and perfectly carried out, with such intelligence, patience and persistence, on the part of the physician and patient, as is requisite to accomplish the end desired. For I must say that it is extremely tedious and tiresome to care minutely for these patients, who should be seen at least weekly, and even for months or years, with careful and accurate records, innumerable urinary and blood analyses, etc., etc.

On the other hand, however, we have the alternatives of leaving the patient to suffer and die, or to submit to a surgical operation with the expectation of recurrence in a considerable proportion of cases, attended often with greater suffering and final death.

My experience with the disease for forty years or more in private practice, and for the last few years in my medical clinic

for cancer, in the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital, and in wards of the hospital, have so fully convinced me of the correctness of the views I have stated here and elsewhere that I cannot too strongly beg you to give them due consideration, and not simply to class them with the various passing claims and suggestions regarding cancer, which have so often proved illusory. For along the lines which I have presented lies the real cancer problem, as I can demonstrate by many cases more or less similar to those detailed in my little books.

Communications

the Good Samaritan Hospital, has treated ten cases, which he states has not had one attack of asthma following two injections of Subculoyd Lobelia given each by him.

In the treatment of eclamsia I give from twenty to sixty minums, repeating every three hours until the pulse drops to seventy-five, which seems to follow after four to six injections. I am sure that Subculoyd Lobelia is the best drug today for the treatment of eclamsia and is less harmful than anything you might use in the treatment of eclamsia.

It certainly will be of great service to the country doctors who have to rely on their judgment quickly and act accordingly.

Hoping all who may use it will find the same value of it as I have. DR. M. G. McCORKLE.

Portland, Ore.