Prof. Gibbes Talks Of Cancer

In a column and a half interview, . Dr. Heneage Gibbes, Professor of 1 Pathology, of the University of Michigan, gives the special correspondent of the Detroit News-Tribune a general description of the various forms of cáncer, together with an account of experiments made by him, as also his investigation and disproval of Prof. Leuckhart's theory of the parasitic origin of cancerous growths. The interesting interview doses as follows: "It would seem that a cáncer consists of a mass of cells growing from cells already existing, but having the peculiar properties described. The only way in which cáncer can be cured, then, is by stopping this growth of cells, and to this end my recent experiments have been made. The great difficulty. however, is to procure suitabie cases. The results obtained so far, however, are very promising, but are not suftïciently determined to enable me to give any definite information regarding them. It must not be imagined that every small tumor or swelling is a cáncer, as there are numbers found which are perfectly innocent in their nature, unless they grow to such a size as to interfere mechanically. In every case a skilled surgeon should be consulted, as a small innocent tumor may develop into a cáncer, and ought to be removed at an early stage. "In order to understand the nature of the growth, it is necessary to remove a minute portion to make a microscopical examination. This is done by first hardening the portion and then cutting it into very thin slices. These are colored with a dye which shows the different elements of which the slice is composed. These colored slices are then placed between two very thin glasses, when they are ready for the microscope. The slices are cut so thin that a portion of tissue not larger than a pin head will make about twenty slices. For the last fourteen years or more every cáncer that I have received, or every portion sent me for diagnosis, has been treated in this way. Every available coloring matter has been tried in different combinations to stain the slices, so as to find out something that is different in the elements of which the slices are composed, and their relation to the disease. In this way thousands and thousands of slices have been examined, stained in every conceivable manner, so that some cells of which they are composed will take one color and others another, until a picture is produced under the microscope which is really beautiful from the variety of coloring. "In this way I have gained a thorough insight into the structure of the different forms of cáncer, and the cells of which they are composed. The microscope has hitherto failed to reveal to me anything which is the cause of the disease. "Some years ago I made experiments on animáis by inoculating them with fluid taken from a cáncer of the human body, and also by inserting portions of a human cáncer into different parts of the animal's body, but these experiments gave me no definite results, no cáncer beingcommunicated by them. From my experience, I do not believe cancer can be communicated from one human being to another. I have a series of experiments laid out for the coming winter, which I hope will give good results. I am sanguine that I am on the right track, and hope before very long to have something tangible to report."