CRUCIAL TEST OF THE NATURE OF CANCER 237
The true author of the theory of “ embryonic rests” as the
source of turnouts, malignant and benign, was the embryologist Remak.* Later on
his views were adopted by the pathologist Cohnheim, and to-day the theory is
invariably, but erroneously, attributed to the latter, under the name of
“Cohnheim’s theory.” Following in his footsteps, some researchers at times
regard cancer-cells as “embryonic” in nature, and, along with many
pathologists, they urge the origin of cancer-cells from cells of this, that, or
the other organ, skin, mammary gland, liver, etc., thereby implying, if not
stating, their somatic nature. Well and good. If cancer-cells be “embryonic” or
somatic in nature—if they be skin-cells, or liver-cells, or breast-cells,**
etc.—then it follows that their albumins must be of the same nature as those of
the normal somatic or embryonic cells from which presumably they arose. This I
deny point-blank, and, as the scientific man is bound to do, I will shortly
give some of the reasons. In passing, be it remarked, nothing
(cont. from p. 236) is exactly what the enzyme treatment
of cancer or malignant disease professes to do, neither more nor less. If words
have meaning, “natural healing” signifies Nature’s method, which is all the
scientific investigator is concerned with. The mere denial of this, or the use
of inert trypsin to test its truth, is not scientific evidence.
* Remak, Robert: “Em
Beitrag zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der krebshaften Geschwülste,” in Deutsche
Klinik, 1854, vol. vi., p 170.
**
My old opponent, Mr. W. Roger Williams, F.R.C.S., is one of these. In the Medical
Record of February 9, 1907 (p. 237), lie implied that the cells of a
malignant tumour of the pancreas gland could secrete, not merely trypsin, but
also amylopsin and lipase. On which I suggested that in a universe in which
this could happen it would not be surprising to learn “that some cancer-cells
produce bile or excrete urea, or that in cancer of the breast the tumour-cells,
true to their (supposed) origin from mammary-cells—the mythical ‘tumour germs’
of my opponent—actually go the length of secreting—milk !”