Wild Cells

That cancer is caused by a disturbed electro-chemical balance in the cells of the human body is the theory presented by Donald C. A. Butts, physiological chemist of the Pennsylvania State Department of Health, supported by experimental evidence from rats, and harmonizing with what is known of treatments having a beneficial effect on cancer.

All cells in normal health, he believes, maintain an equilibrium between positive and negative electric charges localized in certain parts of the cell. When cells are exposed to constant irritation, the positive charge increases, destroying the balance, and stimulating overrapid cell reproduction. These cancerous cells may become detached and " run wild" through the lymphatic system, perhaps starting cancerous growths in remote parts of the body.

Mr. Butts experimented with a galvanometer and an electric circuit on nearly 200 pairs of rats, one cancerous, the other healthy. The cancer tissue acted exactly like the positive pole, and the normal rat, the negative, in an ordinary dry-cell circuit He proved that cancerous tissue has an excess of positive charge which may be neutralized by the application of an equal negative charge. This explains why X-ray and radium treatment, in which the alpha or positive rays are screened off by a lead shield, while the beta and gamma rays (negative) are allowed to reach the diseased tissue, have had good results. Colloids of certain elements, such as iodine, sulphur, lead, mercury, have strongly negative charges, and several American physicians are experimenting with colloidal sulphur, while the treatment of Dr. Bell, of Liverpool (TIME, June 11), is based on colloidal lead.

Mr. Butts is engaged in cancer research in the hygienic laboratories of the University of Pennsylvania. His theories have attracted favorable attention from Dr. William H. Woglom, assistant director of the Crocker Laboratory, New York, and other cancer experts.

The longest X-ray treatment for cancer on record was given last week in Bellevue Hospital, New York, b> Dr. I. Seth Hirsch. The patient was exposed for 56 hours to the maximum voltage (250,000) of a high-power X-ray machine, concentrated on an abdominal cancer in a position where surgical treatment was impossible, Several weeks will be required to determine the success of the treatment, but the patient's condition is favorable.

Dr. William J. Mayo, sailing for Europe, where he will receive honorary degrees at Dublin and Leeds and present a paper at an international surgical congress in London, stated that he knew of no reliable cancer cure as yet. Few things are improbable in surgery, he said, but further research into the nature and cause of cancer is prerequisite. The apparent increase in cancer, he believes, is due partly to the lengthened span of life, as cancer is essentially a disease of middle and old age.