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 C A N D O In- -CANNING 557 forms the most striking illustration of this generalization. cure in favourable cases, and of a longer respite in The river flows through a great variety of geological others. A number of drugs, including inoculaformations, but all the localities having the highest cancer tions with thyroid extract and toxins, have ^at~ mortality lie on clays, and are liable to floods ; those having been tried, but such methods of treatment are the lowest lie on limestone and chalk, and are, for the only in the nature of experiments. Change of residence most part, not subject to flooding. Further light has from a clay to a chalk soil is worth trying after removal been thrown upon the subject by the investigation of by operation. (A> gL^ localities and houses to which the term “ cancer-haunted ” Candon, a town in south Ilocos province, near the has been applied. Certain spots, groups of buildings and west coast of Luzon, Philippine Islands, in 17° 4' N. Its single houses, seem to harbour some special liability, and climate is hot, though healthful. It is surrounded by an that independent of their size and age. An investigation extensive and fertile plain, and is defended by a small caried out by Mr d’Arcy Power in a cancer district pro- fort. Its inhabitants are noted for their honesty and duced some remarkable examples. In one case, three men industry, as well as for their regard for law and order. occupying the same house in succession all died of cancer carry on an extensive traffic with the wild tribes of since 1877, when the earliest case occurred. It was a new They the neighbouring mountains. Indigo is grown in conhouse then, built on land which had been pasture, and its siderable quantity, as are rice and tobacco. The weaving first occupant was the first victim. The third was only thirty-six years of age. In another instance three cottages of blankets, handkerchiefs, and cotton and silk cloths were under one roof, and in each of them a case of cancer constitutes quite an important industry. The language occurred within six years. Many other similar instances is Ilocano. Population, 15,700. have been recorded, and it is difficult to deny the existence Ccingc&s de On is, a township of the province and of some local influence. But whether it lies in a predis- diocese of Oviedo, with a population in 1897 of 9507, position engendered by the situation, or in the harbouring situate in a fertile, ’well-watered, partly wooded, undulating of a parasite in the soil, or in some intermediate host, is region. Its trade is chiefly in live stock and products of at present mere subject of conjecture. Animals do not neighbouring copper and coal mines. It has good buildappear to play any part in the matter. Cancer has been ings, a foundling hospital, schools, a town hall with a observed in horses, dogs, cattle, cats, and sheep, in the Latin inscription recording the fact that this place was the relative frequency named, but it is not very common in residence of the first kings of Spain after the spread of the any of them. With regard to occupation, the following Moors over the peninsula. Here early in the 8th century comparative mortality figures are given by the Registrar- lived King Pelayo, who started the Christian reconquest General :—All occupied males, 44 ; all unoccupied males, of Spain. His historic cave of Covadonga is only 8 miles 96; grocers, 34; clergy, 35; potters, 35; coal-miners, 36; distant. The church of the Assumption, rebuilt in the farmers, 36 ; fishmongers, 42 ; medical practitioners, 43 ; 19th century, is on the model and site of an older church blacksmiths,45; fishermen, 46; porters,48; general labourers, of the Middle Ages. Near Cangas are ruins and bridges 48; drapers, 49; shoemakers, 50; dock and wharf labourers, of the Roman period 51; tobacconists, 51; plumbers, 53; innkeepers, 53 ; coalCannanore (Kananore), a town of British India, heavers, 56 ; butchers, 57 ; coachmen and grooms, 58; tool in the Malabar district of Madras, on the coast, 58 miles and scissors makers, 58; gas-workers, 59; lawyers, 60; mer- N. from Calicut. The population in 1881 was 26,386, in chant seamen, 60; maltsters, 61; commercial travellers, 63; 1891 it was 27,418; the municipal income in 1897-98 inn and hotel servants, 65; brewers, 70; innkeepers in was Rs. 28,450. Here is the residence of the Mopla London, 70; chimney-sweeps, 156. An examination of chief, known as the Ali Raja, who owns most of the these figures is very suggestive. They appear more or Laccadive Islands. Cannanore is the headquarters of a less incompatible with any existing theory. Mental worry military division. It has a municipal high school and and overwork seem to be negatived by the low position reading-room. A railway is under construction from of doctors, who come below labourers, fishermen, and sea- Calicut. men. The great differences in occupational incidence are Cannes, a town of France, in the arrondissement of not in accordance with either a parasitic or a local theory, while the moderate place—considerably below lawyers— Grasse, department of Alpes-Maritimes, on the coast, 23 taken by innkeepers is quite at variance with the sugges- miles in direct line S.W. of Nice, and on the railway tion that alcohol is responsible. Why should lawyers be from that town to Toulon. The town, which has steadily more susceptible than clergymen and doctors 1 They are grown in favour as a winter health resort, was several not so long-lived as the former, so that old age cannot times visited by Queen Victoria. In 1899, 382 vessels account for the greater incidence, and both less intem- of 47,421 tons (including those engaged in coasting trade) perate and less worried than the latter. It looks very entered the port, and 368 of 48,046 tons cleared. The much as if chance had more to do with the matter than trade is mainly in French hands. Population (1881), anything else; but there is the one striking fact of the 14,086; (1896), 28,591; (1901), 34,151. enormous susceptibility of chimney-sweeps, which is too Canning'.—By canning is meant the preparation of great to be explained by chance. The well-known and food in packages of tin or glass so as to preserve it indefinlong-recognized frequency of cancer in this particular itely with its natural flavour and nutritive properties class used to be advanced as proof of the hypothesis of uninjured. To this end it is necessary that the food local irritation, which is still the orthodox explanation should be hermetically sealed and the bacteria or germs of cancer. The soot is supposed to act as an irritant; that cause fermentation be destroyed. The process was but, if so, why are potters and coal-miners, who also work developed and given a commercial value by Nicolas Appert in irritating materials, so very low in the cancer scale ? in France in 1807-10. Until recently it was thought No doubt the case of the chimney-sweep contains one of that the spoiling of hermetically sealed food was due to the keys to the problem of cancer causation, but it has the presence of air in the tins or jars, and the process of not been found yet. sterilization was carried on by cooking in an open water The only “ cure ” for cancer remains removal by opera- bath, at a temperature of 212° F. It is now known that tion. There is some ground for claiming that improve- fermentation is caused only by the presence of bacteria ments in surgery offer a better chance of complete or micro-organisms; if these are destroyed and the food