On Spiroptera Carcinomata and their Relation to True Malignant Tumors; with Some Remarks on Cancer Age

Abstract

In this Journal (1918, iii, 227) Bullock and Rohdenburg have criticized some reports published during the last years, concerning the experimental production of malignant tumors (Fibiger, Yamagiwa and Ichikawa) and tumor-like formations (Stahr). Bullock and Rohdenburg emphasize that An analysis of the several reports mentioned reveals a number of assertions common to each, which are at variance with the recognized laws of malignant tumor growth, while, at the same time, it brings out points which cast a certain amount of doubt upon the authors9 interpretation of their results. In the following I shall reply to Bullock and Rohdenburg9s criticism, though only in so far as it concerns the investigations on Spiroptera carcinoma communicated by me. I can so much the less avoid occupying myself with the assertions of these authors as their untenability seems to some extent to be due to an insufficient acquaintance with or a misapprehension of the details of my investigations of 1913 and 1914 (1–4). My most recently concluded investigations (8–11), which corroborate the results of the former, were not published until after the appearance of the authors9 paper and so could not be known to them. Bullock and Rohdenburg base part of their criticism on a comparison between the result of my investigations on Spiroptera carcinoma and the result of investigations carried out by themselves on the effect of mechanical, chemical, or mechanicochemical irritants1 on the stomach of the rat.