Cancer theories are the order of the day, the question of the origin of these growths is one that tempts original thinkers as well as those who follow out the well-marked paths of thought in this particular department. One of the latest, based on biologic studies, is by R. Beard,1 University Lecturer on Comparative Embryology, Edinburgh. The immediate cause of this publication of his views was a comparison he had been led to make in another article between the modes of growth of certain organisms and the pernicious activity of cells in certain pathologic conditions of the human chorion. If the latter be really carcinomatous, as is held by certain pathologists, the cause of cancer, he says, "is clear as the light of day."
That we have thus far missed this explanation is due, he says, to our faulty notions as to the life cycle of the vertebrate organism.