urgical
department of the Harvard Medical School in 1900 or the previous year,
and in connexion with the Cornell University Medical School there is a
small endowment called the "Huntingdon Cancer Research Fund." There
appear to be institutions of a similar character in other countries, in
addition to innumerable investigators at universities and other ordinary
seats of scientific research.

Some attempt has been made to co-ordinate the work thus carried on in
different countries. An international cancer congress was held at
Heidelberg and Frankfort in 1906, and a proposal was put forward by
German representatives that a permanent international conference on
cancer should be established, with headquarters in Berlin. The committee
of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund did not fall in with the proposal,
being of opinion that more was to be gained in the existing stage of
knowledge by individual intercourse and exchange of material between
actual laboratory workers.

Theories of cancer.

In spite of the immense concentration of effort indicated by the
simultaneous establishment of so many centres of endowed research, and
in spite of the light thrown upon the problem from many sides by modern
biological science, our knowledge of the origin of cancer is still in
such a tentative state that a detailed account of the theories put
forward is not called for; it will suffice to indicate their general
drift. The actual pathological process of cancer is extremely simple.
Certain cells, which are apparently of a normal character and have
previously performed normal functions, begin to grow and multiply in an
abnormal way in some part of the body. They continue this process so
persistently that they first invade and then destroy the surrounding
tissues; nothing can withstand their march. They are moreover carried to
other parts of the body, where they establish themselves and grow in the
same way. Their activity is carried on with relentless determination,
though at a varying pace, until the patient dies, unless they are bodily
removed. Hence the word "malignant." The problem is--what are these
cells, or why do they behave in this way? The principal answers put
forward may be summarized:--(1) they are epithelial cells which grow
without ceasing because the connective tissue has lost the capacity to
hold their proliferative powers in check (H. Freund, following K.
Thiersch and W. Waldeyer); (2) they are embryonic cells accidental