The Shaw-Mackenzie treatment of cancer.

  • F.R.C.S.
Date:
[1907]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Shaw-Mackenzie treatment of cancer. 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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    /<?/ THE SHA W-MA CKENZlu THE ATM Sir,—The question of much a public one as one is interested. The time can be limited to the professional organs and to medical books. The unrest excited in the public mind by various communications to the Press on the subject has practi- cally led to cancer being placed in the same category as diseases like tuberculosis—scourges which demand the interference of the State with a view to ascertaining, by a Royal Commission of Inquiry, the possible causes of their incidence, and methods for their prevention. Organised on certain definite lines an inquiry upon cancer would be attended with results most beneficial and valuable. As long ago as 1893 I pointed out in an article in the Nine- teenth Century how useful such an inquiry would be, and again I must urge my unqualified oonviotion that in the interests of the community it is imperative that the , State should undertake this necessary duty. First and foremost among the points upon which authentic infor- mation is most desired is that respecting the increase of the disease. At present, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the fact that cancer is increasing is still disputed. Of course the old saying that statistics can be made to prove anything is unassailable ; it so happens that cancer statistics especially lend themselves to this mode of treatment. Were this matter, however, to be inquired into by a Royal Commission then it would be that individual observation, individual experience, individual evidence would be available for elioiting details which no statistical office could possibly supply. That is the point in regard to the cancer mortality returns of the Registrar-General. IVhat is wanted is a personal explanation, as far as can be, from the medical men by whom the statistics are supplied—not deductions based upon the figures by those who have only the figures from which to draw conclusions. In proof thereof, there appeared in the Morning Post ; of the 4th inst. a paragraph to the following effect : “ Dr. Thresh, Medical Officer of Health for Essex, re- ported to the Essex County Council that the mortality from cancer in the county was increasing yearly. Ho pre- dicted that at the present rate of increase cancer in a few decades would cause more deaths than any other disease.” Obviously an opinion of this nature, based upon personal experience in the district concerned, is worth volumes of statistics from which irresponsible and misleading deduc- tions might be drawn. It must therefore be conceded that a State inquiry into this, as only one of the points at issue, would result in the gleaning of many valuable data upon the question of the increasing mortality from cancer, the attainment of which would not be possible by any other means. CANCER. cancer has now become just in which the medical profession has passed when its discussion TO THE EDITOR