The late Willard Parker, one of New York’s great surgeons, in a study of 397 cases of cancer of the female breast, observed from 1830 to 1880, wrote very strongly in regard to the constitutional relations of cancer. In considering the etiology he places constitutional causes first, and says, “luxurious living, and particularly excess in animal food, increases the waste products of the body, and if coupled with insufficient exercise, the waste products are retained in the system and have a tendency to produce abnormal growths.”... “Cancer is to a great degree one of the final results of a long continued course of error in diet, and a strict dietetic regimen is, therefore, a chief factor in the treatment, preventative and curative.” Concluding his study he says, “There is such a _consensus_ of opinion as to the advisability of early removal of the growth, that a discussion of the subject would be useless. So then, in the first place, let us remove the tumor, and thoroughly. But after we have done so, after we have taken it out by the very roots, is this sufficient? No. We must then adopt the means stated above to prevent a second development. We must change the diathesis; we must seek to modify the patient’s constitution so that it will be no longer prone to reproduce the disease: and then only may the surgeon be satisfied that he has done his duty.” He further says, “In regard to the effect of abstemiousness on cancer I can speak with great positiveness, that vegetable, or at least a very bland diet, does check the progress of the disease, and, in some cases now under treatment, has been attended by an alleviation of symptoms; and in a few instances even by a recession of the growth.” He also quotes from Sir Astley Cooper some strong language which, as he says, “shows a broader and more enlightened view of the subject than is contained in the writings of some more recent observers, who have supposed that they were working far in advance of the great English surgeon”; the rather long quotation then given proves that that great surgeon also believed absolutely in the constitutional nature of cancer. Sir James Paget is often mentioned by writers, sometimes even with derision, as a believer in the Constitutional Nature of Cancer, and his words are very strong; says he, “I believe it to be constitutional, in the sense of having its origin and chief support in the blood, by which the constitution of the whole body is maintained,” and speaks at some length in his lecture, in support of this view; I will give you one other small quotation. “The existence of the morbid material in the blood, whether in the rudimental or in the effective state, constitutes the general predisposition to cancer,” etc. It is remarkable that the views of this prince of surgeons and pathologists should not have carried more weight in regard to cancer, when his other views are so well accepted.