CHAPTER
X
A PUBLISHED TEST OF “THE TRYPSIN TREATMENT OF CANCER”
LIKE the publication by Dr. Bainbridge, the
contribution* of Messrs. Ball and Thomas professes to be a “scientific
report.” As already stated, unlike the former document, the publication of the
latter does give information—such that a searching scientific investigation
can be made into the details of the procedure adopted. It must be recalled
that, in the words of this report, “Two cases of carcinoma were placed on
trypsin treatment in May, 1906, in the Cancer Wards of the Middlesex Hospital,
but with negative result, there being no improvement in the patients, nor was
the progress of the growth influenced by the trypsin injections.” Here the
authors omitted to notice two significant facts of these cases, one had a
single injection, and the preparation used had at that time been found to be
inert in ferment powers by others as well as by myself. These cases are Nos. 1
and 2 of the report. It is possible—though I should not care to’ guarantee it
scientifically—that in Case I as much as 100 Roberts tryptic units were in all
exhibited, and in Case 2 certainly not more than ten such. There is no mention
of any employment of
* Ball, Walter, and
Thomas, E. Fairfield: “The Trypsin Treatment of Cancer,” in Archives of the
Middlesex Hospital, Sixth Report from the Cancer Research Laboratories,
London, May, 1907, pp 18-34.
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