The nature of the cancerous processes and the cancerous cachexia, and the relation of local irritation to each / by Roswell Park.

  • Park, Roswell, 1852-1914.
Date:
[1900?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The nature of the cancerous processes and the cancerous cachexia, and the relation of local irritation to each / by Roswell Park. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprint from April Number of the American Medical Quarterly. THE NATURE OF THE CANCEROUS PROCESS AND THE CANCEROUS CACHEXIA, AND THE RELATION OF LOCAL IRRITATION TO EACH.' By Rosweer Bark, A.M., M.D., Professor of Surgery, Medical Department, University of Buffalo. OVER one hundred years ago, a great, but in this country almost forgotten surgeon, Peyrilhe, voiced the following sentiment, which is just as true to-day as when he gave it ex¬ pression: “ Ut cancrum curare, sic eum definire perarduum est ’ ’ (Diss. de Ca?icro, Toulouse, 1774). Every path¬ ologist who studies the disease, and every surgeon who attacks it, will con¬ cede willingly that in order to cure cancer one ought to know the nature of the disease with which he has to deal; and every modern pathologist will also concede, I think, that oncology, with its kindred subject teratology, constitutes the most fascinating and important field for his labor. Indeed so important, so difficult, so all-absorbing is the study, that some of us, who live in what I have nick¬ named the actual tropic of cancer, succeeded in securing State aid in pros- I Read before the New York Academy of Med¬ icine, February 14, 1900. ecuting it. Thus it came about that there was organized the State Patho¬ logical Laboratory of the University of Buffalo; and thus again, I take it, as one deeply interested in the move¬ ment, I have been invited to partic¬ ipate in this discussion this evening. That I may do justice, then, to the subject, as well as to myself, it seems wise to consider some of its clinical and border-line aspects, leaving a demonstration of methods and results to my colleague Dr. Gaylord, the head of the actual laboratory work. When we deal with the matter and manner of growth of cancer we find that while in the minds of many kary- okinesis undoubtedly plays a most important role, it is not the sole feature of interest in this connection. Even the abnormalities of mitosis, interesting as they may be, do not explain much of what we must appre¬ ciate in order to know in what the disease process consists. Arnold ( Vir¬ chow's Archiv., 1883-4) has called