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                                         “ THE TRYPSIN TREATMENT OF CANCER”                                 231

amylopsin, active or inert. The other nine cases were treated with the Fairchild injections, and every ampoule of trypsin and of amylopsin was tested qualitatively, not quantitatively, before use. It was found that each and every ampoule had some strength—how much, apparently, being regarded as a detail of minor importance. Quinine is said to cure malaria, but to-day no physician or sur­geon would anticipate any” improvement” from the use of preparations containing a small amount of active quinine, irrespective of the amount per cubic centimetre and of the dosage. I pass over the previous histories of the cases, for the good reason that the report is practically  silent upon these points. One remark on p. 33 may be noted, viz., that— 

 

“The length of time during which the patients were under observation previous to the commencement of treatment is of importance. For in large measure a prolonged period before commencement of treatment signifies an acclimatization of the patient to hospital surroundings, and a greater equanimity towards the possible value (if any particular treatment in view of the many failures with which the patient’s lengthened stay in hospital has made him acquainted.”

 

The enzyme treatment is a stereo-chemical—not a hypnotic one! This argument, if of any scientific value at all, would apply to the surgical dictum of “early operation in cancer also. Moreover, it ignores the fact that the cancer also “ acclimatizes “ itself, not to add that it grows.

The injections used had per ampoule, without any loss for qualitative tests, the following values: Trypsin “regular,” 125 units; trypsin “special,” 250 units; and amylopsin, 100 units. The maximum dose given in most cases was 15 minims, or 3/4 ampoule ; never 40 minims, as mentioned as the general dose then in use in the “Direc­-

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