16 THE ENZYME TREATMENT OF CANCER
ultimately,
if used in solutions of sufficient strength, liquefies them, as maintained by
myself, Blumenthal, and—“ in some cases “—by Bainbridge, or it has no action
upon them, as stated in 1906, and again in 1907 by official researchers. One or
other of these statements must be false. The official assertion was unsupported
by the production of any evidences whatever the former rests upon the
independent testimony of four* different observers, situated as widely apart as
London, Edinburgh, Berlin, and New York. The official statement is untrue. Already,
in Nature (January 10, 1907), I called upon the executive of the
Imperial Cancer Research Fund to substantiate the assertions made under their
auspices, or to withdraw them. I now repeat this unsatisfied demand, merely
adding that, if they wish their finds still to stand, they must complete the
statements scientifically by the addition that inert trypsin** had been
employed, and that the assertions challenged related to such inert trypsin, and
not to trypsin in an active form.
In
the later pages of this book I have explained why it comes about that in some
cases trypsin may act upon
* As I recognize, while
finally reading through this manuscript before sending it to press, a fifth
observer of the formation of “liquid
cancer “ can be cited. From the charts of Captain Lambelle’s case of sarcoma,
and from his description on a subsequent page of the course of his case of
lympho-sarcoma, it is clear that in what he speaks of as “sero-purulent fluid”
in the one case. and “ purulent fluid “ in the other, he was really dealing
with liquefied cancer.
** The General Superintendent of this
cancer research himself writes as follows: It is surprising how many people are
unconvinced that the scientific examination of such claims presupposes exact
knowledge of the ingredients of the remedy. In the absence of this knowledge,
negative conclusions could always he ascribed to error” (British Medical
journal. May, 27, 1911, p. 1221). One wonders whether he knew this when the unpublished
experiments with “ trypsin “ were carried out, and, if so, why he failed to act
upon it.