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.

    7/20
    CANCER: ITS ORIGIN, NATURE, AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TREATMENT.1 0 • . Mr. Pkesidext, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—My first duty is to thank youi' Council and the members of this Society for what I regard as a great honour in being asked to be present and to take part in the debate. When I received the invitation, the interpretation I put upon it was not that anything I had contributed was of special value, but that you simply recognised that in me you had an interested worker in connection with a subject of the very greatest importance and the very greatest interest. I accepted the invitation because I felt I would like to hear what others had to say, and I have not been disappointed in the opening address by Dr. Galloway. The facts he has brought forward are all of them of the greatest im- portance, as bearing upon the subject. Again, I felt that a Society such as this, in having a debate of this character, did a good thing. In a problem of this kind, presenting such great difficulties, it is only by a united effort that we can in any way solve the problem. The first thing, in carrying on a discussion of this kind, is for us to clearly understand what it is that we are talking about. In the present day, it is a proper thing to know that we are all worshipping in the same tabernacle, and that we have not each got a little kirk of our own. With regard to the terms cancer and carcinoma, in speaking of them I refer to a morbid process which begins in a situation where epithelium is present in the body, and results in a structure made up of epithelioid cells. The characteristic of that structure is that the cells continue to multiply and increase, that they invade the surrounding tissue, that they travel, as Dr. Galloway has told us, along the lymphatic vessels, and pass to the lymphatic nodes, and in a large number of cases that cells hive off from the primary growth and form secondary deposits in distant organs or parts of the body. That is the meaning which I attach to the terms cancer and carcinoma. At the same time, in a discussion such as this I think it is of great importance that, although speaking of one particular- process, we do not lose sight of the whole subject of tumour formation. . If we have a theory which explains only one form 1 Reprinted from the Clinical Journal for 21st May, 19(>2.