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Show H TRACING CAUSE OF CANCER. H A stud' of plant life is about to solve the secret of cancer which H has so long baffled the doctors of mediein'e. Dr. Edwin F. Smith. H m charge of the laboratory of plant pathology in the department of H agriculture, Washington, in u paper read at Buffalo, outlined the H experiments and their results which he has been carrying on for H months. A dispatch says: H Already an army of European scientists is at work on a repeti- H tion of the experiments with a view to checking his observations, H though there is little room for doubt as1 to their verification. Briefly H his results are as follows: A discovery of the cause of "crown M gall" in plants; the tracing of the bacteria responsible for this dis- M ease; new light on the probable relation of the bacteria to the cause H pf cancer; the reasons for the failure of attempts to inoculate animal H H The similarity between plant and animal tumors has long been H noted, but until Dr. Smith's research the semblance was not cstab- H lished in detail. H In addition to showing the analogy to the malignant tumor H tissue of animals, he points out that this plant disease gives rise H to secondary tumors or cancers; that a certain degree of im- 1 munity can be obtained by repeated inoculations and that crown H gall has a tendency to appear in callous or scar tissue; finally. H and it is the most remarkable resemblance of all, the pronounced H tendency of the galls to return after excision. |