Obviously this is the time to deal with the disease; and the way to do so is systematically to examine microscopically (by a procedure in itself devoid of all risk, except the very small one due to the administration of a general anaesthetic), every _doubtfully_ malignant breast, afflicted by chronic inflammation. This may seem a revolutionary thing to say; but if we set ourselves to deal with this plague in the logical manner that we employ when we sit down to deal with any other pest, and, if we follow all the facts known to their inevitable conclusion, we are driven to it, and we shall see that there is no other course open to us but to _deal in a wholesale manner with the precancerous condition_. To do this we shall have to undertake a long campaign of education. One of the leading authorities on breast cancer in America, did undertake such a campaign in his own district, with the result that, from the enthusiastic propaganda of one man, the proportion of precancerous to fully developed malignant lesions which appeared at his clinic rose in six years by thirteen per cent. In twenty years the proportion of fully developed cancer to pre-malignant lesions dropped from ninety to seventy-eight per cent. I am quite sure of the fact that the adoption of this proposal would mean operations upon a number of breasts which would never become cancerous, but, so far as I can see, we cannot help this, any more than we can help vaccinating a large number of people who will never have small-pox, or, when we isolate diphtheria contacts, can we help disturbing also a large number of people who will never get diphtheria. The public have been educated to regard these precautions as natural and proper, and as a rule raise no objections to their being carried out. Dr Bloodgood, to whose educational work I have just referred, states that if any woman could be kept under sufficiently close observation, she could be practically assured against death from cancer. I think every other surgeon of experience would agree with him. So much for prevention and the precancerous lesions. Let us come to the question of the cure. Here we find that the chances of cure in any particular case simply depend on the stage at which the case appears for treatment. We can for convenience divide cases into two groups; those which have glands involved and those which have not. By this I mean those which have glands so grossly involved that they are appreciable to the touch. Again quoting Dr Bloodgood, it is found that of those cases with gland involvement, twenty-three per cent. only are cured after seven years but, of those without gland involvement, sixty-five per cent.