CANCER REMEDIES.
A very slight acquaintance with the advertisements of quack medicines
is enough to show that a knowledge of the causes of the disease for
which a cure is promised is in no wise necessary for the composition of
either the medicine or the advertisement, in fact, it is impossible to
believe that the extravagant claims and absurd statements made could be
put forward by persons having any knowledge of disease. It is no matter
for surprise, therefore, that in the case of the least understood and
least successfully combated of diseases many proprietary “remedies” are
put forward. A considerable number of these articles have been received
and the alleged claims tested at the laboratories of the Imperial
Cancer Research Fund; specimens of a few of these were obtained and
submitted to analysis, and some notes on their composition cannot
fail to be of interest to members of the medical profession, who will
probably from time to time have to treat sufferers from cancer who have
been induced to buy one or other of these preparations.
As was to be expected, the articles examined have little or nothing
in common. In the case of diseases for which the ordinary treatment
involves the use of certain specific drugs, proprietary medicines
are usually merely varying compounds of those drugs; thus, of the
advertised cures for epilepsy, analyses of which are given in the
next chapter, the essential ingredient in all but one is an alkaline
bromide. But in cancer the would-be maker of a proprietary “cure” has
no such accepted treatment to guide him, or to restrict the free range
of his fancy in selection of ingredients; it is probable that some of
the “remedies” here described were inspired by the fact that some
apparent improvement followed their fortuitous use in some cases,
_post hoc_ having been assumed to mean _propter hoc_; the first to be
described, however, can hardly rest even on this basis.
It is a colourless liquid, containing a trace of sediment; the
odour is that of alcohol, though very slightly vinous. Fractional
distillation showed the presence of about 40 per cent. of alcohol;
on complete evaporation, a trace (0·02 per cent.) of dry residue was
left. This residue was free from any alkaloid, and its behaviour with
reagents gave no indication of any other active principle; it agreed
in character with the “extractive” found in spirit that has been kept
in a wine-cask. After removing the alcohol, the liquid was perfectly
tasteless. This “remedy” is thus very simple in nature, consisting
merely of diluted and slightly impure alcohol. Its composition brings
to mind the analysis published some years ago of a so-called electric
fluid, or “electricity,” for the cure of cancer, which was taken up by
a certain well-known journalist and boomed by him in the pages of the
review which he edited; many marvellous cures were ascribed to it, but
examination showed that although it was sold at several shillings per
fluid ounce, it consisted of plain water. Notwithstanding the exposure,
the article is at present quoted in wholesale lists, and is therefore
presumably still in demand. The cost of the “medicine” we are now
dealing with is of course considerably greater than the cost of plain
water, but this fact will be but small consolation to the victim who
derives as little benefit from the one as from the other.
The next article analysed was a blue fluid containing a considerable
blue sediment, and smelling fairly strongly of terebene. The chief
ingredient was found to be a blue dye stuff of the oxazine or thiazine
group, much resembling methylene blue (which is the only member of
these groups ordinarily used in medicine), but differing from it in
solubility and in its behaviour with certain reagents. This constituted
the greater part of the sediment, and a portion of the dye was also in
solution. The liquid further contained a dissolved gum and a trace
of terebene; these, with a little magnesium carbonate, were all the
ingredients present. No trace of any alkaloid was found, and the
solvent was water. The gum showed no difference from ordinary acacia
gum, and was probably added to suspend the undissolved dye stuff. Water
dissolves very little terebene, and no more of the latter was present
than could be dissolved by the water; it was probably employed to give
an aromatic taste and smell, and the magnesia was doubtless used to
subdivide the terebene in the manner commonly followed by pharmacists
when dissolving essential oils in water. It thus appears that the
essential ingredient of this medicine is the blue dye stuff; it is
possible that this has been used as methylene blue, since the articles
sent out under the same name by different dye manufacturers often
differ in composition; but, as already stated, it is not identical with
the methylene blue usually met with. The total solids in the mixture,
after shaking up the sediment, amounted to 13·2 per cent., of which the
dye stuff constituted something like one-half.
A third preparation was a brown liquid of syrupy consistence found
to consist of wood tar. It was a much purer product than ordinary
Stockholm tar, and its peculiar odour indicated that it was derived,
at least in great part, from the birch; no other ingredient could
be found. This article came from Sphakia, Crete; the label bore no
directions for its use, leaving it uncertain whether it was intended
for internal or external use, but the latter appears the more probable.
The remaining articles are clearly intended for external application;
the first of these consisted of a plaster mass, in the half-pound
sticks in which such masses are usually supplied. Analysis showed the
principal ingredient to be lead oleate, with a little stearate, and
small quantities of resin and soap. These are the ingredients of the
resin and the soap plasters of the _British Pharmacopœia_, and the
proportion of soap present showed the specimen under examination to be
emplastrum resinae.
The next preparation was an ointment of Dutch origin. It contained
large quantities of ammonium alum and zinc sulphate, with a little
sodium sulphate, made up into a stiff ointment with a basis consisting
of beeswax, soft paraffin, oil, and resin. The quantities of the salts
were approximately:
Alum 27 per cent.
Zinc sulphate 37 ”
Sodium sulphate 8 ”
The presence of so large a proportion of mineral salts, of course,
leaves very little tenacity in the ointment; particles of the white
salts were easily visible to the eye, and the effect of applying the
preparation must be practically the same as if the dry salts were
rubbed on the skin except that the basis would, of course, act as a
lubricant in the rubbing.
The last of these preparations was another ointment; the mineral
ingredients in this case, however, were in organic combination. This
ointment contained copper oleate and aluminium oleate with a basis of
lard and a little resin. The proportions of the active ingredients were
approximately:
Copper oleate 15 per cent.
Aluminium oleate 35 ”
No alkaloid or other active principle was found.
A bottle of lotion for cancer and other affections, obtained in the
ordinary way through a dealer, was examined. The label commences with
the statement that the lotion “cures cancerous or malignant sores”;
then follows a list of other diseases, with the addition, “even cases
that have been under the treatment of doctors and at infirmaries
for years.” Analysis showed the composition of the lotion to be
substantially as follows:—
Zinc sulphate 92 grains
Carbolic acid (pure phenol) 1·2 oz.
Glycerine 1·8 fl. oz.
Cochineal solution sufficient to give a
deep red colour.
Water to 3·3 fl. oz.
This quantity is contained in a bottle costing 4s. 6d.; the directions
are to add the whole contents to 1½ pints of water, which is to be
applied to the diseased parts for about five minutes two or three times
a day.
Another pretended “cure” for this disease was supplied from an address
in Croydon, by a person who described himself as a retired Government
analytical chemist. The bottle did not bear an Inland Revenue stamp.
The vendor seems to prefer to see and examine the patients. In one
such case he was paid 3 guineas, and asked for more, as it was, he
said, a complicated case. The directions given were “two tablespoonfuls
should be taken three times a day.” Analysis of this liquid showed
the presence of ferric chloride, and traces of hydrochloric acid and
alcohol, and nothing else except water; the alcohol indicates that the
tincture of perchloride of iron, and not the liquor, was employed;
determination of the amounts of iron and chlorine present showed that 6
fluid ounces of the mixture contained 5·7 fluid drachms of the tincture.
A few years ago a good deal was heard of the wonderful cures said to
be achieved by two persons who resided at Cardigan. A great deal of
secrecy was observed, but it was known that a fluid was applied to the
surface of the cancerous tumour. The treatment, it was stated, began
with prayer, and exhortations to the patient to trust in the Almighty;
the lotion or oil, which was said to be made entirely from herbs and to
contain no mineral caustic, was then painted on with a brush. Unlike
other empirics who profess to remove the “roots” which the knife leaves
behind, these Welsh practitioners asserted that their remedy made
the “roots” shrink into the original growth which then fell off like
a ripe apple from a tree. The practice seemed to be to require the
patient to attend daily to have the local application made for periods
extending over several months. Eventually, in some cases, a mass of
dried, heaped-up crusts formed, and when this became detached it was
put into a bottle and given to the patient who was told that it was
the cancer extracted by the treatment. In one case which was enquired
into, this bottle cancer was submitted to microscopical examination;
it was found to consist of crusts formed of sloughing parts of the
skin and inflammatory exudation, the whole being such a mass as might
be produced by the use of an escharotic. The crusts when submitted to
chemical analysis were found to contain zinc chloride in considerable
amount, together with a very appreciable quantity of an insoluble
compound of lead. A healing oil was also supplied to help the cancer
falling off, and this when chemically examined was found to contain 27
per cent. of oil of turpentine, the remainder consisting principally
of an ordinary saponifiable oil, probably cotton-seed or olive oil. In
addition there was a considerable amount of deposit which proved to
consist almost wholly of barium sulphate, a very insoluble salt, used,
under the name of permanent white, by watercolour artists. It would
seem, therefore, that the statement that the applications contained no
mineral caustic was inaccurate. In other patients the effect of this
Cardigan treatment was more destructive. In the case of one woman who
had been informed that the cancer had been cured and that she only
required some tonic medicine to complete the cure, the surgeon who was
called to her when she was _in extremis_ has said that he never beheld
anything like it in his life; the whole breast was a necrosing mass,
black and stinking, the ulcers extending up to the collar-bone and down
to the margin of the ribs and across the middle line; the hand could
have been inserted under the margin of the dead part all round. Some
unfortunate patients persevered with the treatment although suffering
pain described as excruciating.
Caustics are, in fact, the weapon of the quack, and although they may
have a legitimate sphere in surgery, it is very limited; zinc chloride,
for instance, has occasionally been used in a strong solution or paste
as a caustic under special circumstances. Although portions of a tumour
may be removed by caustic application, it is impossible to eradicate
the whole in this way, as the cancerous process is extending into
adjacent parts. The formula of the quack—“cancer treated without the
knife”—appeals with great force to the public who do not know the
terrible long-drawn-out agony which those treated with caustics have
to undergo. Of this a vivid description was given by a well-known
naturalist, the father of a distinguished man of letters, in a little
book in which he related the suffering of his own wife; she was treated
by an American cancer-curer by caustics. The process of “cure” lasted
several months, and the result may be summed up in the statement that
“suffering never ceased from the beginning of the operation till her
spirit was freed from the worn-out body.”