Cancer: Its Cause and Treatment, Volume 1 (of 2)Bulkley, Lucius Duncan
Science
Cancer: Its Cause and Treatment, Volume 1 (of 2)
Bulkley, Lucius Duncan
Cancer
When the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital was founded, over thirty
years ago, Cancer was included with Diseases of the Skin, in the hope
and expectation that in studying the internal causes of the latter light
would be thrown on the etiology of carcinoma, which, as we know, is a
disease of epithelial elements; and the earlier Report of the Hospital
shows but one department, including Cancer with Skin Diseases, with
operating surgeons and a gynæcologist to assist, whenever their services
were requested by the physicians in charge. Before long, however, for
reasons which cannot now be given, and against the judgment of the
present speaker, the plan was changed, and a separate cancer department
was erected under the exclusive charge of surgeons. A Prize Fund was
also early established, which has been slowly increasing, for the
discovery of a cure for cancer by other than surgical removal.
For thirty or forty years I have held very much the same views regarding
cancer which have been presented in these lectures, and have acted on
them more or less strongly, and in later years very stringently, and
have rarely seen cause for regret. For one reason or another I have also
had many hundreds of patients, with various affections, on a vegetarian
diet over varying periods: in a number of cases I have records extending
over many years, in which I have observed the patients from time to time
(one psoriasis patient having continued it for over twenty years) and
with only the best results, so I trust that you will accept and test the
validity of my statements.
In looking over my case histories in private practice I find that I have
more or less complete records of 96 cases of carcinoma, mostly of the
breast (two of them having Paget’s disease), 29 of sarcoma in various
situations, and 619 of epithelioma of different degrees of severity, of
which four others had Paget’s disease; a total of 744 patients with
these forms of neoplasm. Some of these patients were seen in
consultation, others only once or for a brief period, but many of them
were under care and observation for a greater or less length of time.
During the past year I have also treated on the plan here indicated a
number of cases of recurrent carcinoma in the New York Skin and Cancer
Hospital, which have been submitted to very careful laboratory study,
some of whom have exhibited decidedly favorable results: some of these
will be referred to later, but they are too recent to afford positive
data, and I prefer to confine my consideration mainly to private
patients, in regard to whom more reliable evidence can be obtained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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