Chapter 1: The Cause of Cancer

The medical profession have been theorizing as to the cause of cancer for many years. About once in six months we read under startling headlines in the public press, that the cause of cancer has been discovered! Students in the laboratory and with the microscope, now and then make this announcement to the world, that a serum has been discovered that will cure cancer! Vast sums of money have been expended in erecting cancer hospitals; institutes for “cancer research.” Remedies have been lauded time and again as a cure for this disease, yet the people keep on dying in the same old fashioned way. We have tried to deceive ourselves and the public with the comforting thought that cancer was not on the increase, but the fact is that the mortality from cancer in England is 4 1/2 times greater than fifty years ago. In the United States, in 1890 there were 18,536 deaths from cancer; in 1900 there were 29,222 deaths from this disease. At the present time the mortality cannot be less than fifty thousand annually. Dr. John A. McGlinn, in a paper before the Philadelphia Medical Society says: “That one man out of every thirty-two and one woman out of every eleven die of cancer. After the age of thirty-five one man out of every seventeen and one woman out of every nine die of cancer; one third of the deaths from all surgical conditions were due to cancer.”

It would appear from the above that cancer is not being cured, that it is still numbered among the incurable diseases. It has been the practice of many of the profession to cut out everything that looked like a cancer, but statistics will abundantly prove that a surgical operation not only does not cure cancer, but really hastens the death of the victim. A surgeon can only cut out what is seen and felt under the knife, while millions of cancer germs grow and multiply in the blood, the nuclei of future cancer. Another fact, the surgeon seems to forget that every operation is a shock to the nervous system, it lowers the nerve power, weakens the power of resistance to disease and thus encourages the invasion of cancer.

It is often remarked that after an operation “the wound healed up very quickly”, why? Because nature rebels against such mutilation and repairs the damage as soon as possible. While sticking to the old theory that cancer is a local disease and depending on surgical operations to cure it, the regular profession have not cured the malady. Is it not about time that we should abandon the theory of the fathers and do some thinking for ourselves? The men in this country who have treated this disease successfully have treated it as a constitutional or blood disease. From my own experience of forty years in the study and medical treatment of cancer in all its forms, I am convinced that it is the local manifestation of a blood disease. To say that a disease is incurable because some one else has said so, to sit calmly down and repeat parrot-like “it cannot be cured” is unmanly, is un-American, is cowardly. What are we waiting for, some savant in Germany, France or Italy to show us how to cure cancer? The victims of cancer are dying all around us; what can we do for these poor unfortunates? The object of this book is to get the profession interested in the rational treatment of the disease, that we may at least try to cure them. To treat the subject intelligently we must consider the causes why cancer is on the increase.

I honestly believe that if it were possible to keep the vitality of a person at or near the normal healthy standard there would be no danger of cancer. We find in cancer victims, weakened vitality and enfeebled nerve power; this gives us the key to the situation and tells us how to successfully combat the disease. Every epidemic like typhoid fever, pneumonia, diphtheria, la grippe, etc., weakens the vitality of the people and lets down the bars for the invader — cancer. Every war this country has ever had, every financial crisis, anything that causes worriment of mind and severe strain upon the nerves lowers the nerve power and weakens the vitality of our people and makes them good subjects for cancer, consumption, pneumonia, etc. Tea and coffee drinking weaken the nervous system. In all countries where they drink tea and coffee to excess, there you will find cancer on the increase. Excessive meat eating is another fruitful cause of cancer.

Insurance men tell us that if a man or woman at 40 lose 20% of their normal weight there is danger of cancer, consumption or Bright’s disease. Following out the idea of Dr. William Waugh of having adults examined physically once in six months we would be able to detect the above disease in the early stages. and so by proper treatment be able to stave off future trouble. The chemists and scientists for many years have tried to discover some powerful drug, some deadly poison, some deadly serum which. taken by the mouth or injected into the human body, would kill the germs of cancer and knock out the disease. They have overlooked one fact; a drug which would do all that would weaken the vitality of the victim if it did not hasten his death, Any remedy or treatment, whatever it may be, that weakens the vitality of the patient lessens the chance of recovery.

The rapid increase of cancer throughout the civilized world may be explained by the following great causes of cancer:

• First. Worriment of Mind. Worrying weakens the nervous system, lowers the “nerve power” and thus opens the way for the invasion of cancer. In all countries where you find insanity on the increase you will find cancer a close second. In Chicago where insanity has increased the fastest in the world, cancer has increased 812% from 1861 to the present time.
• Second. Vaccination. In all states. and countries where there is enforced vaccination there you will find cancer on the increase.
• Third. Meat-eating. Meat-eating is a prolific cause of cancer. In England the mortality from cancer has increased; it is 4 1/2, times greater than it was fifty years ago. The people consume 131 pounds of beef per head every year. Is it any wonder that the “Beef Eaters” have cancer? In twenty-five countries using meat largely, nineteen had a high death-rate from cancer, five a moderate and one a low rate. In countries where the diet is almost entirely vegetable there you will find very few cases of cancer. In Bombay, in 1875, the death-rate from cancer was only one in 10,000; in England 5.5 per 100,000. In Egypt cancer is never found among the black races who are vegetarians, among Arabs and Copts, who eat as Europeans. In the monastery of the Grand Trappe, where the diet excludes tea, coffee and meat there has not been a case of cancer for twenty-seven years.
• Fourth. Tea and Coffee. Tea and coffee weaken the coats of the stomach and the nervous system and produce various disorders in the human system. In all countries where the people drink tea and coffee freely there you will tend cancer on the increase. Our own country — America — has become a nation of “tea drinkers”; as a result three out of five persons have some form of dyspepsia or indigestion, and cancer has increased from one in ninety-one in 1850 to one in twelve in 1890. In thirty countries drinking very much tea and coffee, twenty-five had a very high death-rate, five a moderate, and none a low rate. In America we are becoming a nation of nervous, hysterical people, and insanity is on the increase. It must be ever borne in mind that if the nerve power falls below the normal standard there is danger of invasion of cancer.
• Fifth. Alcoholic Stimulants. The use of intoxicating liquors is a fruitful cause of cancer. In all countries where they are used to excess there cancer is on the increase. In England among the wine and spirit merchants, the death-rate is five times greater than other men. Beer-drinking towns such as Munich, Stuttgardt and Copenhagen have a high mortality from cancer.

What our people need is to be taught how to live. There must be temperance in all things. Good pure water, good pure air helps to make good healthy red blood. Unadulterated food, mostly vegetables, easily digested, leaving out tea and coffee, keep the nervous system strong and vigorous. Stop worrying. In this way we can protect ourselves against the dreaded monster — CANCER. A return to the “simple life” of our forefathers is what we need. Modern civilization, with all its luxury, high living and drinking, and filling the stomach with all kinds of food and drink (the most of it never intended for the human stomach), is only encouraging the inroads of cancer.

In a case of cancer, no matter how far the disease has advanced or how bad the case is, there are two things that we have to depend upon for a cure: First. We must raise the nerve paver, the vitality of the patient at or as near normal as possible. Second. It depends upon whether the system of our patient will respond to the action of remedies or not. In other words we must begin at the very foundation and build up our patient to strengthen his power of resistance against the disease. Many times I have noticed this fact that when the eye, the pulse, and the tongue showed the organs of the body secreting properly, good digestion, a strong, full, regular pulse, the disease itself would be at a standstill, but if the signs showed a weakened vitality, the disease would take on new life and activity.