ut
clinical investigations conducted at Middlesex hospital in a number of
cases of undoubted cancer in strict accordance with Dr Beard's
directions, and summarized by Dr Walter Ball and Dr Fairfield Thomas in
the _Sixth Report from the Cancer Research Laboratories_ (_Archives of
Middlesex Hospital_, vol. ix.) in May 1907, resulted in the conclusion
"that the course of cancer, considered both as a disease and as a morbid
process, is unaltered by the administration of trypsin and amylopsin."
The same conclusion has been reached after similar trials at the cancer
hospital. Another experimental method of treatment which has attracted
much attention is application of the X-rays. The results vary in a
capricious and inexplicable manner; in some cases marked benefit has
followed, in others the disease has been as markedly aggravated. Until
more is known both of cancer and of X-rays, their use must be considered
not only experimental but risky. (A. Sl.)

CANCRIN, FRANZ LUDWIG VON (1738-1812), German mineralogist and
metallurgist, was born on the 21st of February 1738, at Breitenbach,
Hesse-Darmstadt. In 1764 he entered the service of the landgrave of
Hesse-Darmstadt at Hanau, becoming professor of mathematics at the
military academy, head of the civil engineering department of the state,
director of the theatre and (1774) of the mint. A work on the copper
mines of Hesse (1767) earned him a European reputation, and in 1783 he
accepted from Catherine II. of Russia the directorship of the famous
Staraya salt-works, living thenceforth in Russia. In 1798 he became a
councillor of state at St Petersburg. He published many works on
mineralogy and metallurgy, of which the most important, the _Grundzuge
der Berg- und Salzwerkskunde_ (13 vols., Frankfort, 1773-1791), has been
translated into several languages. His son, Count Georg von Cancrin, or
Kankrin (1774-1845), was the eminent Russian minister of finance.

CANDELABRUM (from Lat. _candela_, a taper or candle), the stand on which
ancient lamps were placed. The most ancient example is the bronze
candelabrum made by Callimachus for the Erechtheum at Athens, to carry
the lamp sacred to Minerva. In this case it is probable the lamp was
suspended, as in the example from Pompeii, now in the Naples museum;
this consisted of a stalk or reed, the upper part moulded with
projecting feature to carry the lamps, and a base resting on three
lions' or griffins' feet; sometimes ther