The Non-Genetic Appearance of Various Types of Neoplasia in Experimental Animals?

Abstract

Any new scientific interpretation must possess various characteristics derived from the consideration of scientific principles. Without entering into a detailed discussion of these principles, it is obvious that each new interpretation must be built upon data which are: first, consistent within themselves; and second, consistent with known and accepted data derived from older experiments in other fields contributary or fundamental to the point at issue. Another principle more or less of an academic nature, which ought also to be considered, is the principle enunciated by William of Occam, and known as the Law of Parsimony or Scientific Rigor. This principle maintains that of two interpretations bearing upon the same set of data, that one which explains the data in the simpler terms ought to be favored. We are at the present time engaged in an attempt to throw some new light upon the phenomenon of the origin of neoplastic tissue. In order to call forth a just consideration of our new interpretation, we must build up our conclusions from grounds which are just as positive as those which have been critically considered from the other phases of the same problem. Too many times we hear the argument that since cancer runs in certain families it must of necessity be inherited. Again, we frequently hear the argument that as cancer apparently obeys no laws of clear-cut environmental influence it must have an hereditary characteristic. These ideas, although they may be right, at the same time are based upon a type of argument that should not be employed by conservative investigators. We should base our arguments not so much on these aspects of the problem, but rather upon our positive findings; both from observations of the occurrence of neoplasia in human families, and what should be even more convincing proof, from the study of the occurrence of cancerous conditions in carefully controlled laboratory stocks of experimental animals.