There has appeared recently an article by Dubard,1 wherein the author suggests the administration of magnesium salts to cancer patients who have undergone operation, in order to lessen the chances of recurrence. The same agent had been used some twenty years before by Gaucher and Herscher,2 who reported favorable results after the application of a paste of magnesium chlorid to an ulcerated epithelioma of the lower lip. Regnault,3 also, was encouraged by the outcome following the internal administration of magnesium salts in cases of inoperable cancer, and has accordingly been using them systematically in the hope of avoiding recurrence.
It is fortunate that experimental cancer research permits such suggestions as these to be examined in the laboratory, for the clinician's obligation to save human lives imposes on his investigations a restriction that does not hamper the experimental pathologist.
A laboratory devoted to cancer research, again, can command