Transmissibility and curability of cancer / by William Seaman Bainbridge.

  • Bainbridge, William Seaman, 1870-1947.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Transmissibility and curability of cancer / by William Seaman Bainbridge. 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.

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    cancer for each, in two instances for one only, and in the remaining instance no history of cancer in the immediate family was obtainable. In none of these was there cancer of the genitals. A case in my own practice was that of a woman, fifty-one years of age, with cancer of the body of the uterus, whose husband, two months older, has cancer of the bladder. , I may mention in this connection an interesting case reported by Childe. Two sisters were found to be suffering simultaneously with cancer of the lower bowel. Inquiry elicited the fact that they lived in close companionship for many years, occupjdng the same bedroom all the time, and for the most part the same bed. Following up the histories of these sisters the fact was re- vealed that a year later a third sister, who had lived apart from the other two, visiting them only occasionally, was the subject of cancer in the same region. Had not the third sister developed cancer the cases of the other two would have been beautiful examples of infection. Childe con- siders the probability of the third sister “ catch- ing ” the disease frorp the others as extremely doubtful, and that the three cases taken together rather support the theory of heredity. Roger Williams considers the cases of co-exis- tence of cancer in husband and wife so few as to furnish no evidence of contagion. He further states that the children of cancerous mothers have never been known to have acquired the disease, even when the placenta, uterus or other parts of the genital tract have been the seat of the malady. He concludes, from his own observa- tions, that cancer is essentially non-contagious. The only two cases of alleged infection among surgeons which have come to my notice are re- ported by Guermonprez, he himself being the