page105

Contents Page

page107

 

   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

page105

Contents Page

page107