RETROSPECT 181
ignorant
of his doings. No information was at any time vouchsafed to me. Of the 100
cases, one (No. 49) was not cancerous, sixty-six were post-operative failures,
and eighteen were “inoperable,” making eighty-nine out of the 100. Of the
remaining eleven, four are described as “ lost sight of “ and three as “
alive.” Of the class of case which a scientific test demands—viz., an
absolutely unoperated one—the 100 cases include seven, as against sixty-six
recurrent cases after one or several operations. Of these seven cases, three
were “lost sight of,” three were “alive,” and one was dead. Five of the cases
at least were syphilitic, and my experience hitherto has been that no good
results can be hoped for in cases suffering from such a complication as
syphilis. Ten of them had been treated with the X rays, which, looked at
scientifically, must be regarded as one of the best stimulants of cancer ever
discovered. How far the eighteen inoperable cases were suitable ones for the
treatment it is impossible to say. Here, as in all other respects, Dr.
Bainbridge was his own judge, jury, prosecuting advocate, etc., and all the
scientific man need say to sum up shortly what the report is, apart from all
other considerations, there are in it no evidences at all to show that Dr.
Bainbridge ever considered, much less sought to eliminate, all or any possible
sources of error in his experiments.
On
the fifth line of his “scientific report” the author refers to the
determination he had expressed in 1907 to give the enzyme treatment “a
thorough, scientific test.” A study of his report reveals that (1) five
strengths of trypsin injections were used, of which the strongest is stated to
have had six times the potency of the weakest but no attempt is made in the
report to discriminate between these five injections, or the cases in which
each