The Cancer Research Institute / by J.G. Adami.

  • Adami, J. George (John George), 1862-1926.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Cancer Research Institute / by J.G. Adami. 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 CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE.* By J. G. Ada mi, M. D., Sc. D., LL. D., F.R.S., Montreal, Professor of Pathology, McGill University. I have been asked to speak upon the subject of the Cancer Research Laboratory or Institute, and find myself in the uncomfortable position, despite the best of intentions, of being able only to utter mere commonplaces. For, the more I have thought over the matter, the more it has impressed itself upon me that the recommendations that I can make are such as are already being carried out at the present moment in this city of New York; my conclusions must therefore be familiar to all here present who are interested in the subject. The primary, as it is the ultimate, object of can- cer research, is, let me emphasize, the discovery, not of the cause of malignant new growth, but of the means whereby humanity may be protected against this, its most awful scourge. Keeping this in mind, it will be seen that there are two methods of attack, both logical, both scientific, and it is for us to determine which promises the better results, the fuller and richer fruit. These I may term the direct and the indirect methods. Of the value of the former Ehrlich has recently afforded us a unique and triumphant demonstration. It is the method of experimental chemotherapy, and con- sists in this, that having first selected some ding or substance of known chemical composition, seen to possess a definite although imperfect influence upon the course of a particular disease, the investigator, with his corps of chemical assistants, proceeds to elaborate a succession of compounds of this primary *An address delivered at a stated meeting of the New York Academy of Medicine, May 15, 1913. Copyright, 1913, by A. R. Elliott Publishing Company.