The statement by Dr. Murphy, of New York, and Dr.
Leitch, of London, to the International Cancer Conference on Tnesday will raise anxious but hopeful expectations. Dr. Murphy has extracted from tumours in chickens a " growth-producing substance " and has shown that this substance is normally present in certain tissues. Dr. Leith has produced a tumour in a chicken by injecting glandular substance from another healthy chicken. The inference is that Nature, which always strives to achieve a balance, provides growth-preventing as well as growth- producing substances. It will be the task of researeh, now that a growth-producing. substance has been• dis- covered, to find substances which are growth-preventing. Dr. Leitch's growth-producing substance is believed to be an enzyme or ferment Doubt is thus thrown.on the announcement three years ago by Messrs. Gye and Barnard that cancer originated in a virus.
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