PART I
THE
PROBLEMS OF CANCER
CHAPTER
I
EMBRYOLOGICAL
ASPECTS AND ETIOLOGY OF CARCINOMA*
At a time when so much is being attempted in the investigation
of the problem of the nature of cancer, it may appear presumptuous on the part
of an embryologist to express opinions and conclusions regarding this grave
question. It has long been a subject of earnest research by physicians and
pathologists, who naturally are familiar with actual facts and finds concerning
carcinoma, foreign to the embryologist. But hitherto the physician and the
surgeon, the pathologist and the gynaeco1ogist, have failed utterly to
establish anything concerning the etiology of cancer, and without the
intervention of the embryologist success may be as distant in the future as in
the past.
As indicated
by the above title, the present chapter is intended to deal with aspects of
carcinoma as they strike an embryologist, and not every embryologist, but one
particular investigator. At the outset it may be asked, “Is the etiology of
carcinoma an embryological problem?“ As the thing itself and its
manifestations demonstrably fall within the province of the surgeon and the
pathologist, for it confronts them almost daily, it is possibly not
* The Lancet, June 21, 1902.
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