106 THE ENZYME
TREATMENT OF CANCER
independent
establishment of a science of the utmost moment to mankind—the true science of
life, embryology. In these conditions, and given abundant material of the right
sort, we may hope to witness soon advances in our knowledge of the
malignant neoplasms of which we can now form no conception, and the vast
importance of which it is impossible to gauge.
The
three most important points in the above chapter appear to be the recognition
that the problems of cancer finally merge into those of identical twins,
triplets, etc., of the fundamental identity of sarcoma and carcinoma, and of
the mimicry of the tumours. The latter, of course, was not new, but it was a
revival of a doctrine enunciated early in the nineteenth century by
Fleischmann, and later on advocated by the late Sir James Paget. At the time
this chapter was written down (October, 1904) the writer was deeply
engrossed in the microscopical study of malignant tumours. This work was
interrupted by a controversy with Mr. Roger Williams, F.R.C.S., which was
started by the latter in the Lancet, and the letters of both sides will
be found in that journal of the closing months of 1904 and early in
1905.
In
the course of this, in a reply to my opponent, I wrote down the words: “The
mammalian embryo solved the problem of cancer ages ago.” After writing this, I
looked at it, and said to myself, “ Yes, it is quite true, but—how ?“ Then the
thought came, Why are you bothering about the microscopical details of these tumours?
You ought to be working at the things which occupied you ten years ago. Without
further loss of time I got out all my material relating to the critical period,
and the two papers, “On Certain Problems,” etc., and “The Span of Gestation,”
which