LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

THE CANCER PROBLEM—FURTHER EVIDENCE NEEDED.

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] .SIR,—Your issue of August 0th contained an article of mine

entitled "The Cancer Problem : New Evidence." I sum- marized in it the theory of my recently published book,

in which I have endeavoured to prove that cancer is due to chronic poisoning and to vitamine starvation, and I asked readers of the Spectator suffering from cancer to communicate with me. After all, cancer sufferers are the best, are, in fact, the only, experts on the causation of the disease. They alone know how they have been living during the twenty

or thirty years preceding the outbreak. In my opinion, twenty years or so of wrong living are required to produce

an outbreak of cancer. More or less continuous poisoning from outside, by chemical poisons, heat, &c., or from inside by bowel poisons created by constipation during twenty years or so seem required. One of my correspondents, after reading my Spectator article, wrote to me :— "Re your article on Cancer. I received fourteen wounds from explosion of a signal bomb whilst celebrating the late King of Siam's Jubilee at Bangkok, December 5th, 1893. I had an open wound for eighteen years. Then several lumps formed, which I now know were cancerous growths. I was operated on and the wound was cauterized. It healed, and has never troubled me to this day. Eighteen months after operation a growth formed in another place. I was again operated on and the growth removed. Twelve months ago three growths appeared. The doctor told me I must go into hospital again. I asked him to tell me honestly was I suffering from cancer ? My wife was with me, and he said :

Yes, it is a cancer.' "

My chronic poisoning theory has received a remarkable confirmation by this letter. The wound was evidently poisoned, for it did not heal, and only after eighteen years the continued action of that poison led to cancer.

My theory that modern food which has been de-vitaminized, particularly white bread, is a very important cancer producing factor is founded upon the knowledge that de-vitaminized foods at the same time cause constipation and create lesions in the bowels. Thus the toxins caused by intestinal stagnation are readily absorbed into the system, and they lead to numer- ous cancers all along the alimentary canal, and particularly in the bowels. The Rev. Wm. A. Gillies, Parish Minister at Aberfeldy in Perthshire, wrote to me :—

" Cancer.—With reference to your book and most interesting article in the Spectator on the above subject, I should like you to know that when I was parish minister of the Island of Time, off the west of Argyll, I was struck with the extraordinary prevalence of cancer among the people. I remember noting some thirty cases, incipient or fatal, during the three years of my incumbency, 1906 to 1909. The people were purely rural and numbered about 2,000. The Medical Officer at the time was a fine old man, Dr. Alex. Buchanan, since dead, who had worked among the people for fifty years. I asked him one day if he could explain the frequency of cancer in such a community ? His reply is interesting in view of your theories. He said that when he went to Tiree cases of cancer were very rare indeed, and all that he could say, about it was that it appeared to come into the island along with loaf bread from Glasgow. The staple bread of the islanders prior to the coming of the ' loaf ' had been barley bread, made from grain grown on the island. Of course, the appearance of the • loaf' coincided with changes in other articles of diet."

Several cancer sufferers gave me detailed accounts of their lives, and told me a history of chronic poisoning by constipa- tion, rheumatism and gout, &c. A case of cancer of the jaw in an old lady was preceded by great difficulties in swallowing, which were noticeable during several years. The lady was very fond of hot tea, and possibly ever-continued scalding of the mouth and oesophagus led to cancerous developments.

It is worth noting that death from cancer of the oesophagus is five times as frequent in men as in women. But then,

men drink hot tea and coffee far more hastily than women. In the morning men gulp their hot tea in haste when rushing off to work, while women sip their tea at leisure. The information received so far has been of very great interest and value, and will materially help in elucidating the cancer mystery. I hope that other readers who suffer, or who have suffered, from cancer, or who have intimate knowledge of the way in which cancer sufferers have lived during the last

twenty or thirty years of their lives will communicate with me. They will do a service to mankind.—I am, Sir, &c.,

J. ELLIS BARKER.

Albion Lodge, Fortis Green, East Finchky, N. 2.