92 THE ENZYME TREATMENT OF CANCER
the
writer has several times come across them in utero. There exists,
however, a case in the literature of embryology, published in three different
scientific journals of high standing—that of an armadillo, the “tatu” (Praopus
hybridus) where, according to von Jhering,* from seven to twelve young are
formed within one chorion—that is, as products of one egg. The observation
tallies with, and is allied to, that already recorded by A. von Kolliker** in
1879, of four foetuses within one chorion in a related species, Dasypus
(Praopus) novemcinctus (the nine-banded armadillo). Not long after the
above was written, aided by a small grant from the Carnegie Trust, I was able,
with the kind assistance of Professor von Jhering, to obtain from Brazil two
small sendings of pregnant uteri of both of these species. An examination of
some of the material amply confirms the statements of both von Jhering and von
Kölliker. As von Jhering remarks, the observation shows how little reason
there is for the common belief that it is an invariable rule, or even law, for
only one embryo to arise from a single egg. The occurrence and comparative
frequency of identical twins, triplets, etc., in man, taken along with the
above observations and other considerations, point to a former multiplicity of
embryos, formed as the progeny of one egg, even in the ancestry of man.
A
further step may now be taken, and it may be insisted that the tumours,
including cancer, date back to this condition as their source. In the course of
ages, one or more of the former identical twins, triplets, etc., has become
rudimentary; but it, or they, may reappear
* von Jhering, H.: “Uber
‘Generationswechsel’ bei Sãugetiercn,” in Biol. Centralblatt,1886, vol.
vi., pp. 532-539; also in Berliner Silzungsherichte and Arch. f.
Physiologie,1886.
** von Kölliker, A. :
“Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen,”
II. Aufl., 1879, p. 362.