Wednesday, October 10, 2012

1923 Cancer Article

Ninety-nine percent of the information on this website is focused on Fowlerville and its surrounding area and history, but, once in a while, I like to offer up some general information.  The following article was found in The Fowlerville Review in a 1923 issue:

One woman in eight and one man in 14 dies of cancer.  So the public should gladly give deep thought to the medical warnings and advice circulated.

Here are the important facts you should know about this dread disease:

1.  Cancer usually is caused by chronic irritation, particularly of the stomach.  Thirty per cent of cancers in men and 21 percent in women are in the stomach.

2.  Cancer is not contagious.  It is not a germ disease.

3.  Cancer is not hereditary, tho a person may inherit a 'tendency' or physical weakness which, not safeguarded, may enable cancer to develop easily.

4.  Cancer, taken in the early stages, often is curable in the hands of medical experts.  Radium is working wonders in this line.  So is surgery.

Dr. Francis Carter Wood, directory of the Columbia University Institute of Cancer Research, learned this:

Between the ages of 12 and 19, only one person in 250,000 dies of cancer.  Between 20 and 24, only one person in 200,000.  Between 25 and 34, one man in 10,000 and one woman in 5,000 dies of cancer.  And so the rate rises until, between the ages of 65 and 75, one man in 200 and one woman in 150 dies of cancer.

Thus cancer is especially dangerous in middle age and after.  But the irritation or other cause of cancer often starts much earlier, so no one is immune, and all should be on their guard.

As with other diseases, a periodical physical examination by a skilled physician is the best safeguard against cancer.

After reading through this, it makes one wonder how far we really have come in research since 1923 -- nearly 90 years later.

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