INTRODUCTION 7
It behoves me to add a few words of explanation of Captain
Lambelle’s connection with the work. In his address, “Science and Immortality”
(London, 1904), Sir William Osler, in the finest written compliment any of my
researches had ever received, described (p. 58) “the patiently worked-out story
of the morphological continuity of the germ-plasm” (i.e., the germ-cells) as
one of the fairy-tales of science.” Shortly after then their author was to have
an unexpected and much greater compliment, because of a practical kind, paid to
these investigations. As a scientific man the writer places his trust, in true
military fashion, in “ divisions” and “brigades,” represented by the published
records of observation and experiment, and not in “fairy-tales of science.” The
investigation, one of the most powerful of my” divisions,” which immediately
preceded the cancer work was into the history of the germ-cells, the
forerunners of eggs and sperms, from generation to generation. Some of the
published results of these researches found their way as far as China, where,
in Hong-Kong, a Captain of the British Royal Army Medical Corps happened to be
stationed. These finds interested him so much that he endeavoured, on human
embryos, to make independent observations.
In the first instance these failed, as any experienced
practical embryologist would have foretold. This officer, Captain F. W.
Lambelle, M.D., was shortly afterwards ordered home again, and, on reporting
himself to the Director-General at the War Office, he related the foregoing
facts and his deep interest in my scientific researches, This led the
Director-General to station Captain Lambelle with the 2nd Light Dragoons (The
Royal Scots Greys), at that time in garrison in Edinburgh, so that he might
learn more of my work. From the day when, un-