INTRODUCTION 41
natural
phenomena. Lastly, cancer, with all its malignancy—a thing which laughs to
scorn the impotence of the surgeon’s knife, which yearly claims its thousands
upon thousands of human victims*---is at its scientific basis only a maleficent
natural phenomenon, such as these. We come into being and exist as human beings
because of beneficent natural phenomena, and as human beings we continue, for a
span of time, to subsist, in spite of maleficent natural phenomena. The course
of some natural phenomena is unalterable by human agency; others, again, by a
knowledge of the workings of Nature, of science, can have their maleficent
action stemmed and averted; and, as a scientific man, I affirm that cancer
belongs to the category of these.
To
those, surgeons and others, who have not, like the writer, foolishly devoted
their lives to scientific research and experiment, but wisely to more mundane
pursuits— such as the acquirement of wealth—let the following warnings be
uttered: “ If you wish to set up what you term ‘ test cases,’ pray let them be
such as shall fulfil in every way the requirements of science. Do not vitiate
your experiments from the very start, as has happened, by choosing some 66 per
cent. of the cases, in which there lay the pernicious ‘error of experiment’ of
previous surgical operation, once or several times over. Remember also that if
your cases be chosen rightly—that is, scientifically—even then there remain
the reagents employed, and how used. Do not forget that in this, as in every
scientific chemical experiment, the observer must not only satisfy himself
regarding his reagents, but be prepared,
* On the basis of the present
population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (45,000,000), the
tribute exacted by malignant disease in a single century would be not less than
3,875,000 human lives, or over 100 daily; for India 27 millions.