It is alarming to study the weekly reports of the Health Bulletin of New York City, to see the varying numbers in the different weeks, and the actual numbers per day in some weeks. The lowest number in any week in 1926 was 103 (in the week ending Feb. 20, 1926), and the highest, 163 (in the week ending March 13, 1926), or 22.3 persons per day (almost one per hour); the average being 137 per week, or almost 20 per day, in Greater New York. The United States mortality reports show a steadily increasing death rate from cancer, which, to say the least, is discouraging, as relates to the commonly adopted methods of treatment. Since 1868 the mortality from cancer has tripled, while that of pulmonary tuberculosis has been reduced to onefifth of what it was in 1868. Tuberculosis deaths have dropped from 195.3 per 100,000 population to a little over 90, or less than one-half of what it was two decades ago, while cancer deaths have risen about 45 per cent. Comment is unnecessary. A PRACTICAL QUARTERLY JOURNAL Under the Auspices of the American Association for the Prevention and Cure of Cancer EDITOR L. DUNCAN BULKLEY, A.M., M.D. ASSOCIATE EDITOR J. LYMAN BULKLEY, M.D. COLLABORATORS RUSSELL C. KELSEY, M.D. EDWARD PREBLE, M.D. A. H. ROFFO, M.D., Argentina All original matter must be addressed to the Editor and contributed exclusively to this Journal Address subscriptions and matter relating to advertising, reprints, etc., to THE CANCER PUBLISHING COMPANY 121 East 60th Street, New York City Copyright, 1923, by L. D. Bulkley Price, prepaid, $5.00 per volume, United States, Canada and Mexico; SALT AND CANCER Recently a very intelligent lady, aged 46, from the West, whom I was attending for cancer of the breast, on inquiry as to how she was doing since her previous visit, remarked very simply "that she had improved and that the breast had improved much and was softer since she had left off the use of salt and sugar." In directing her diet I had never mentioned salt, and could not learn why she had made the change. I could understand why the absence of much white sugar could be of great advantage to her cancer, but the matter of salt, as mentioned, I did not give a thought to. So the thing went from my mind, until this evening, when reading some printed material from Mr. Frederick Marwood of Blackburn, England, whose book, "What Is the Cause of Cancer? Is it the Excessive Use of Common Salt, Salted Foods, and Salt Components?" (which book was reviewed in CANCER, Vol. III, No. 2, January, 1926), brought the incident to my mind. The more I considered the possible influence of salt in the production of cancer, as shown in Mr. Marwood's book and elsewhere (although not yet committed to the salt idea), editorially we thought that possibly an editorial notice of the same might induce others to make and record clinical incidents similar to the one mentioned, or others bearing on the subject, which we should be glad to publish in CANCER. I may add that another lady patient, aged about 50, with cancer of the breast, has just been directed very carefully to cut out all salt, and to make no other change in the treatment, and we will see the result in a couple of weeks, or longer. It is interesting to note here that the late Dr. Braithwaite of Leeds, England, had urged the same proposition as Mr. Marwood, in 1901, of which Mr. Marwood gives an abstract at the end of his book. He also gives a lot of confirmatory evidence from many competent observers in the printed matter already referred to, which no doubt he would be glad to send to anyone writing to him. It is interesting to consider some of the supplemental proof which Mr. Marwood has printed in the sheets referred to: The eminent statistician, Frederick L. Hoffman, LL.D., wrote to Mr. Marwood the following: "During my late investigation in Mexico, I found that where cancer was relatively rare, salt consumption was as relatively rare. Mexicans as well as Indians use relatively small quantities of salt compared with the excessive consumption in this country, i. e. United States." Mr. Marwood quotes the well known writer on cancer. Dr. Shaw MacKenzie, as saying: "In several cases recently seen, inquiry has exhibited the fact that salt has been taken in excess." Mr. Marwood also quotes a number of writers who speak strongly of the effect of salt on high blood pressure, and of its injurious effect on weakened kidneys. We know that chloride of sodium, NaCl, is one of the constituents of the blood, but its proportion in health and serious disease is not certain. The elaborate work of Wesslow on the blood does not mention cancer or carcinosis. Forbes Ross, formerly a cancer surgeon, in his wonderful book on "Cancer, the Problem of Its Genesis and Treatment," after abandoning surgery, and after spending ten years in constant microscopical, clinical, and chemical research, advanced the hypothesis that cancer is due to a want of balance in particular mineral salts in the body, and that the disturbance in this balance leads to the disorderly growth of malignant issues. Possibly the presence of chloride of sodium, taken with the food, disturbs this balance and produces what is known as "Carcinoma" (epiblastic and hypoblastic). Ross claimed that the main disturbance is in regard to the potash balance in the body. By very careful deductive and inductive reasoning, and by actual experimentation and practice, he shows how this occurs, and explains many of the puzzles and intricacies of the cancer problem better by this than has been shown by any other hypothesis, and the clinical experience of many others has certainly borne this out in practice. His book is now out of print (soon after his death), and we will take the liberty of quoting something from it, and these references in a measure support the theory and actual experience of the value of potassium in cancer: 1. The old physiological adage, "Potassium is the salt of the tissues and sodium the salt of the fluids of the body," still holds good as an absolute physiological truth. 2. Animal physiology teaches us that the whole of the animal creation, from an ameba to man, follow the same law, "Potassium is the salt of the tissue cell." 3. Examination of the botanical world brings us face to face with the identical statement, "Potassium is the salt of the chemical physiology of the vegetable cell." In regard to the blood cells, about which he had written and studied much, Dr. Ross wrote of potash in the following language: "How vitally important potassium salts are to the red corpuscles is shown by the following: One thousand parts of red corpuscles are found to contain 688 parts of water, 308 parts of organic solids and eight parts of mineral. Of the 8 parts of mineral substances 3.5 are of potassium chloride, 2.5 parts of potassium phosphate and 0.1 parts of potassium sulphate, the remaining 1.9 parts are divided between the iron, calcium, and magnesium, comprising the rest of the red corpuscles. More than three-quarters of the total ash of the red corpuscles is therefore composed of potassium." From all this it may be understood how chloride of sodium, or common salt, in any excess with the food may disturb the balance of the mineral ingredients of the blood, replacing the tissue of the cells when worn out, instead of a potassium salt, thus starting them on their riotous, malignant action, in response to local irritation, and ending in fully developed cancer: Naturally also if the cells are wrongly nourished they will keep up this morbid action until life is destroyed. Mr. Marwood recently took an account of the consumption of cooking and table salt in his own household, consisting on an average of twelve persons. He found that it amounted to 4 pounds per head a year; this in addition to the usual salted foods and occasional saline aperients. In closing his account of "Household Salt Consumption," in a recent contribution, he says, "My own opinion, based entirely on the views of scientific writers, is that one-quarter of an ounce of salt per week, or one pound per head, each year, is ample to supply the body with the actual needs in the replacing of chloride of sodium lost in modern methods of cooking and the preparation of food," and also added, "What would happen to electrical storage batteries if we added sulphuric acid greatly in excess of the necessary formulas, seems to me, will happen in another degree to our internal storage batteries, if we ingest a powerfully corrosive chemical, sodium chloride, to the extent of 10, 20, 30 times, or even more than nature has prescribed." Mr. Marwood seems to have investigated one hundred cases of cancer and all the patients have been inordinate consumers of salt. As this writing is being finished, a third, a very intelligent lady patient of about 50 years of age, with cancer of the breast, doing well under treatment, was in the office, and when the subject of salt in connection with cancer was mentioned, she remarked, quite innocently, "I do not think that my breast would be nearly so well as it is if I had not abandoned salt and I have now no craving for salt, nor any use for it." The subject of salt had not been previously mentioned to her, so the leaven is working. |