Cancer : its origin, nature, and general principles of treatment / by George Thos. Beatson.

  • Beatson, George Thomas, Sir.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cancer : its origin, nature, and general principles of treatment / by George Thos. Beatson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    received the required stimulus, and, accordingly, began to grow just previously to her marriage, and when I removed it she had to wean her first child. There is another point, namely, that of heredity in tumour growths, to which I would like to refer. The view I put forward to you affects not only this, but the question of heredity generally. As you know, the theory regarding the latter that has probably received most acceptance is that of the continuous germ plasm (Weissman). I have never been much taken with that theory. I consider that the theory of a secretion from the whole of the tissues meets better the question of general heredity. As regards heredity and tumour formation, my experience at the Glasgow Cancer Hospital is that heredity cannot be put down as a strong factor. I do find this, however, which others also have observed, that there is in the family history of a great many cases of carcinoma evidence of great longevity, implying an inheritance of a certain inherent vitality of the tissues, which I consider a factor in the question of the so-called hereditary tendency to tumour growth. Among my hospital patients there was a most interesting case bearing on this point. The patient was an elderly woman, ait. 72, who developed carcinoma of the breast. Her son, who had a severe burn in early life, developed, between 30 and 40 years of age, an epithelioma in the scar long before his mother was attacked by carcinoma. He showed the tendency to this disease when young, because in his case it was brought to the surface early by means of the lower differentiated tissue in the scar of the burn, while in the mother it showed itself later in life, only when her tissues had begun to deteriorate and she was advanced in years. As regards cancer houses and cancer localities, it is a point to which my theory can also apply. If there is one thing which we are agreed upon it is that our surroundings affect our vitality and well- being. If you have an environment which lowers the vitality of the body cells in the sense of lessening their functional activity, you can have coming into play the force connected with the fructifying fluid. It is a curious fact that the statistics in Glasgow of cancer show that out of 1,000 certificated deaths there are about 20 from cancer. If you go, however to the East Coast, you have in Dundee 28 per 1,000, in Aberdeen 43, and in Edinburgh (only 40 miles from Glasgow) you have 49. Is that to be explained on a parasitic theory? I consider that impossible. It is explained on local conditions of environment which affect the dwellers in the towns, interfering with the vitality of the general tissues of the body. Passing next to carcinoma during pregnancy, and to mammary recurrences after long intervals, I would point out that it is well known that when cancer occurs during pregnancy it grows with a rapidity quite out of proportion to what is seen in ordinary cases. It must be that during pregnancy the tissues of the body generally are stimulated to produce material for the service of the tissues.