200 FEB. 4, T9281 OBITUARY.r rEDICALTRz BARmsTJOUUNAL Appointments. than an accident, he set himself to discover the origin of Dr. A. E. Russell was elected to the Council in the place of the the spiroptera, but the only information he could elicit late Sir Percy Bassett-Smith. Dr. Monckton Copeman was from extensive reading of the literature about niematodes appointed to represent the College at the 39th Congress of the was that Galeb, many years previously, had found nematodes Royal Sanitary Institute. Sir Leonard Rogers was appointed as had been fed on the common lelegate to the cenitenary celebration of the Faculty of Medicine, in the stomachs of rats that p,airo, in response to the invitation of the Minister of Education cockroach (Pcriplaneta orientalis). This clue was pur- of the Kitngdom of Egypt. sued, thlough the nematodes described by Galeb were of a of many Reports. different species, and Fibiger examined the bodies Communications were received from the President of the rats in a district of Copenlhagen where the cockroaches University of Toronto and from Dr. R. D. Rudolph with reference abounded, and he fed his laboratory rats on these cock- to the receut celebration of the centenary of King's College, roaches, but in no case did lie find parasites in the stomaclis, Toronito. A report was received from the representative of the nor was there ever any trace of ne;w growths. But he did College on th)e General Medical Council. Dr. C. 0. Hawthorne reported on the Departmental Committee of the Optical Practi- not lose heart. He found out that in a large sugar factory tioners (Registrationi) Bill. Books anid other donations to the in Copenhagen there were numbers of rats and swarms of library preseuted during the last quarter were received and thanks cockroaches of a large and unusual type-the Periplaneta were accorded to the donors. The anniual report of th-e Examiners with the for the Licence on the examination held in the year 1927 was americana-which had come from the West Indies received. consignments of sugar. Several of these rats were caught and killed, and when they were examined they were found to have gastric tumours, and in the tumours the Spiroptera SOCIETY OF APOTEIECARIES OF LONDON. neoplastica was found. His perseverance deserved its THE following candidates have passed in the stnbjects indicated: reward. He collected some of the cockroaches and fed his SURGERY.-G. N. Fox, A. W. Lassowsky, J. R. Mitchell. laboratory rats on them, and demonistrated that the cancers MIEDICINE.-G. N. Fox, D. I. Jones. FORENSIC MEDICINF, -G. N. Beeston, B. P. Jones, D. I. Jones, A. W. were always associated with the spiropterae. Investigation Lassowsky, J. R. Mitchell. showed hiim that these cockroaches contained in their MIDWIFERY.-W. B. Hallums, H. T. Ince, E. A. Johnstone, H. D. K. Wright. muscles the larval stage of a worm which, when the cock- The diploma of the Society has been granted to Messrs. D. I. roach was eaten by the rat, developed into the adult Jones atnd A. W. Lassowsky. spiroptera in the gastric mucosa of the rat. The worm in some way stimulated the gastric epithelium to excessive proliferation of am invasive type, and when the mature stage of the parasite was attained the eggs were evacuated with the faeces. This in turn was eaten by the cockroaches, and so the cycle was carried on. Having thus succeeded JOHANNES FIBIGER, M.D., in infesting the rats, and being uncertain of his suopply Professor of Pathology, University of Copenhagen. of Amuerican cockroaches, he endeavoured to infest the WITH profound sorrow we have to record the death of ordinary type of cockroach from the eggs evacuated from Johannes Fibiger, professor of pathology in the University the rat, and in this he was fortunately successful, for the of Copenhagen. Professor Fibiger was in his sixtieth year, sugar refinery was burned to the ground and his supply of and had lately undergone a serio-iUs operation. Whatever American cockroaches ceased. The experiments, as the be the triumphs the fuiture holds for cancer research, his research went on, showed clearly that he could produce name and his work will always have an honoured place, for gastric canicer in the rats at will, that the epitheliomata he was the pioneer of the cperimental inquiry into the produced were preceded by more benign proliferations, that causation of cancer. there was a minimum period required before the spiro- While the study of malignant diseases remained for pterae produced their effects, that metastases were formed the most part a matter of observation and conjecture without the presence of parasites,. that the age of the little or no progress could be made in our knowledge of animals was of no importance in respect of results, that their etiology. Theories and ingenious hypotheses led us no wild rats and other rodents were immune to the action further to the heart of the problem. No one had produced of the worms, that mice were relatively insusceptible and cancer experimentally. His was the first successful attempt, that the production of gastric cancer in them was exceed- and his claims were at once recogniized and welcomed by ingly slow in comparison with rats, that the spiroptera authorities throughout the world. It is a matter of pride could ledge in and produce epithelioma of the tongue, to us to remember that witlhin a few days of the publica- that other parts of the intestinal tract were resistant to tion of his preliminary communication before the war the the action of the parasites, and numerous other observa- BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL emiphasized the importance of tions. In short, he demonstrated that cancer could be this first successful direct attack on the central problem. caused by chronic irritation of peculiar types-in this case Wvhen the story was fully unfolded no one could withhold some toxic secretion from a parasite; but it was perfectly admiration for the brilliant manner in which he developed obvious that this cancer-producing agent could not be his research from a simple chance observation, and the invoked to account for any cancer except the gastric cancer dogged perseverance which enabled him to overcome almost of these rats. There must be other causes operating in insuperable difficuilties. Appreciations of this work, as it other cases. developed, have appeared from time to time in these Inspired by his work, Yamagiwa and Ichikawa in Japan columns, and only a brief summary need niow be given. took up again the attempts to produce cancer by pro- In the course of some experiments in tuberculosis, a longed applications of coal tar, and showed us once more subject on which he bad gained more than a national that patience was the necessary requisite- for- success. Their: reputation as ani investigator, Professor Fibiger noticed experiments were welcomed by Fibiger, who introduced that three rats in one batch had tumours of the stomach. them to the. Western world and extended them, and Knowing that this was a rarity, if not an unheard-of furnished investigators the world over with a ready means occurrence, he attempted, though without success, to trans- of inducing cancer and studying its early phenomena. mit these tumours by transplantation and feeding experi- Others have carried on the work in other lines, but all ments, and by putting fresh rats into the cages previously will agree that to Fibiger is due the honou-r of blazing occupied bv the infected animals. Prolonged investigation the trail. - A. L. of hundreds of serial sections of the tumours, which proved to be squamous epitheliomata, revealed to his observant eye minute structures which enabled him to reconstruct the WILLIAM BRITAIN MORTON, M.D., picture of an undescribed nematode threading its way Medical Superintendent, Wonford House, Exeter. through the superficial layers of the epithelium. Careful DR. WILLIAM BRITAIN MORTON, medical' superintendent of dissection of a preserved tumour afterwards provided him Wonford House, Exeter, died on January 10th, aged 60. with a complete specimen of this worm, to which he gave He was educated at University College Hospital, London, the name Spiroptera neoplastica. Convinced that the took the diplomas of the England Conjoint Board in 1890, occurrence of this parasite -in -all three tumours was more and graduated M.B.Lond. two years later, proceeding to.