40 THE ENZYME
TREATMENT OF CANCER
for
its own sake. As the writer is “ not even a medical practitioner,” the adoption
of the treatment in all or any cases of cancer is not compulsory; but it may
not for a moment be imagined that scientifically it is intended to make good
the failures of surgery.*
The statement made in this book that cancer is a natural
phenomenon, not a disease, is unassailable, it rests upon scientific evidences,
which are impregnable against all attacks; but it may be questioned whether
civilized mankind as a whole has-any real conceptions of the nature of natural
phenomena in general. Some are beneficent. The sun rises, and its heat and light
render this earth habitable to man. Owing to natural phenomena, the seasons
return in orderly fashion, bringing, among other things, spring, with its
fresh, new green ; summer, with its wealth of flowers ; and autumn, with its
harvest of fruit and grain. Other natural phenomena are maleficent— malignant.
The earthquake is not less a natural phenomenon because it destroys its
thousands of human beings. The volcano, also a natural phenomenon, has in the
past buried or destroyed countless cities ; and even in our own day this has
happened. Some naturalists have been of opinion that the fossil remains of
innumerable animals, now extinct—often found in great multitudes heaped
together— owed their present existence, as imperfect records of past events, to
catastrophes which were also
* While for the sake of humanity the
enzyme treatment may be refused to no case of cancer, recurrent after one or
more operations, if such cases fail, from the point of view of pure science,
they may not be regarded and cited as ” test cases” for in them there always
lies the possible source of error of experiment of previous operative
interference. With a positive result, as in the York case becomes, on the other
hand, a test one of the severest description; for in it success has been
obtained, in spite of the existence of the possible source of error.