DIET IN CANCER 
I. Full Text of Nine Cases. 
IL Theoretical Considerations. 
BY 
EPHRAIM CUTTER, A.M., M.D., LL.D., 
■ Associate Member Philosophical Society of Great Britain; Corresponding Mem- 
ber Societe Beige de Microsccpie; Honorary Member N. H. S. Med. Soc., 
California S. Med. Soc., and Gynecological Society of Boston; 
Life Member Nero York Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb; Member Com. Revising U. S. P harmaco- 
poeia, i860, Amer. Med. Assoc., Mass. Med. 
Soc., Amer. Soc. Microscopists, Etc. 
Author Boy Is ton Prize Essay, 1857; Persians and Flexions of the Unimpreg- 
nated Uterus; Hot Water and Beef Plans in Chronic Disease; Clinical 
Microscope Primer; Cereal Foods; Thyrotomy Modified; First 
Fifty Cases of Galvanism of Uterine Fibroids; Food in 
Fibroids; Is Flour Our Proper Food?; Baked 
Beans; a Serio-Humorous Medical Paper; The 
Relations of Medicine to Music, Etc. 
Reprint Albany Medical Annals, July asi) August, 1887. 
W. A. Kellogg, Publisher. 
NEW YORK: 
1887. 
[all RIGHTS RESERVE!}.] DIET IN CANCER: 
I. Full Text of Nine Cases. 
II. Theoretical Considerations. 
BY 
EPHRAIM CUTTER, A.M., M.D., LL.D., 
Associate Member Philosophical Society of Great Britain; Corresponding Mem- 
ber Societe Beige de Microscopic; Honorary Member N. H, S. Med. Soc., 
California S. Med. Soc., and Gynecological Society of Boston; 
Life Member New York Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb; Member Com. Revising U. S. Pharmaco- 
poeia, i860, Amer. Med. Assoc., Mass. Med. 
Soc., Amer. Soc. Microscopists, Etc. 
Author Boy Is ton Prize Essay, 1857; Versions and Flexions of the Unimpreg- 
nated Uterus; Hot Water and Beef Plans in Chronic Disease; Clinical 
Microscope Primer; Cereal Foods; Thyrotomy Modified; First 
Fifty Cases of Galvanism of Uterine Fibroids; Food in 
Fibroids; Is Flour Our Proper Food?; Baked 
Beans: a Serio-Humorous Medical Paper; The 
Relations of Medicine to Music, Etc. 
Reprint Albany Medical Annals, July and August, 1887. 
NEW YORK: 
W. A. Kellogg, Publisher 
1887. 
[all rights reserved.] To My Wife (Case IX.), 
REBECCA SULLIVAN CUTTER, 
IS TENDERLY DEDICATED. 
HAD SHE NOT AVAILED HERSELF OF THIS TREATMENT, 
SHE WOULD, HUMANLY SPEAKING, HAVE DIED; BUT 
NOW SHE IS A LIVING ARGUMENT, WHICH 
I CANNOT REFUTE OR IGNORE, AND 
FOR WHICH I AM MOST 
GRATEFUL. 
THIS ESSAY 
Albany, N. Y.: 
Burdick & Taylor, Printers, 
PUBLISHERS OF THE 
"Albany Medical Annals." DIET IN CANCER. 
First Paper-Full Text of Nine Cases. 
BY EPHRAIM CUTTER, M.A. YALE, M.D. HARV. ET UNIV. PENN., 
LL.D. IOWA COLL., NEW YORK CITY. 
[All Rights Reserved.'] 
Prelude. 
This paper is intended to be practical, giving histories of some 
cases where there were special diets adopted which seemed to be 
beneficial. It is offered as a contribution to medical knowledge 
to point out the way in which the writer thinks that organic 
disease should be approached-that is, through the function of 
nutrition-, to show that alimentation is an agent of tremendous 
power, and to impress the idea that diseased tissues are sometimes 
amenable to food-influences even in apparently desperate in- 
stances. In a second paper the theoretical side of the question 
will be considered. 
Cases. 
Case I.-Diet of Bread and Milk- Cure. 
In the memoir of the late Dr. Amos Twitchell, of Keene, 
N. II., by Dr. II. I. Bowditch, Boston, 1851, we find the follow- 
ing account of his case: 
" 1. Cancer had appeared in his family. His grandmother 
died of cancer of the breast; his sister died of that of tne 
stomach. These are all the data of his hereditary tendencies 
that bear upon our main topic. 
"2. In very early life Dr. Twitchell was in delicate health. 
As a youth he was stronger, and was among the foremost in all 
athletic sports. While at college he became dyspeptic, had 
jaundice, etc., and subsequently he passed gall-stones. Whilst 
pursuing the studies of his profession, he began to suffer from 
asthma, and for about twenty years was very much subject to 
violent attacks of it, causing him during the winter to sit up in 
bed half of every night. During all this period he ate animal 
food freely, three times a day, and digested it with ease, whereas 
vegetable food caused dyspeptic difficulties. Being induced, 4 
owing to a severe eruption of the face, to abandon this course, 
he gave up, for nine years, the use of meat. After some months 
his face was cured; and from the period at which he first aban- 
doned meat he never had an attack of asthma, and Dr. Twitchell 
considered these two facts related to each other as cause and 
effect. Moreover, vegetable food was soon easily borne. After 
the nine years of vegetable regimen, he began gradually to 
resume the milder kinds of animal food, such as poultry and 
somewhat more of the solid meats, until two years since (1847), 
when he commenced the very rigid diet to be described when 
treating of the local disease which is the more immediate object 
of this paper. Finally, I will state, as indicative perhaps of the 
tendencies of the cutaneous system to morbid action, that about 
four years ago he had a papular eruption lasting six weeks, and 
likewise that very many years ago he had a wart-like tumor on 
the scalp, which disappeared under the use of creasote exter- 
nally applied. 
" 3. The local disease, the course and result of which I pre- 
sent as the chief object of interest, commenced eight or ten 
years since as a small but hard tumor at the internal angle of 
the right eye. When first noticed, it was about as large as a 
mustard seed, and not painful. He occasionally touched it, and 
had some suspicion that it might eventually prove of a malig- 
nant character. It was imbedded in the substance of the skin, 
and from the first seemed very slowly to augment in size. At 
times he thought he felt some lancinating pains in it which radi- 
ated to the brow. It did not, however, interfere with the func- 
tions of the lachrymal ducts, etc. About 1843 the tumor had 
become nearly as large as a pea, and a tendency to the formation 
of a scab was observed. He was then induced to try some local 
applications, and frequently, until 1845, used Jenning's ointment. 
This would remove the scab and display three small lobes, from 
which exuded a little purulent fluid. At first the morbid growth 
seemed lessened by this and othei- milder applications, but no 
permanent effect was produced. At times the discharge ceased, 
but only to return again, and the tumor gradually lost its tri- 
lobed aspect. It was at this period quite conspicuous to every 
bystander. 
"August, 1845-Dr. George Hayward, of this city, removed 
it with the scalpel. For a short time the wound seemed doing 
well, but finally it did not heal, and two months afterwards it 
was operated on again, and nitrate of silver was applied. Mean- 
while, however, much local pain had been experienced. It was 
deeper seated, less transitory, and radiated towards the brow 
and cheek. Sometimes it was severe enough to waken him at 
night, and worse usually after long journeys. 
"The applications during 1846-7 were chiefly of a very simi- 
lar character-cold cream, preparations of zinc, etc., and once 
the iodide of lead. All active applications caused inflammation 
of the eye. The tumor continued to augment slightly, and in 5 
the spring of 1847 it presented to my eye a decidedly malignant 
appearance. It was an ulcer about the size of the top of the 
finger, with ragged, hard, elevated edges; and the irritation 
from discharge caused the patient frequently to apply his hand- 
kerchief to the part. At night it caused a gluing of the lids 
and a discharge at the side of the nose. I certainly believed, 
and Dr. Twitchell tells me that he thought, at the time, that the 
disease would gradually augment and involve the eye, and he 
had determined, if necessary, to have this organ extirpated. 
His general health, as it has been already stated, continued good; 
but, when not actively employed, the mind was somewhat de- 
pressed at the prospect before him. At the meeting of the 
American Medical Association in Philadelphia, May, 1847, he 
consulted several of the eminent men whom he met, and I be- 
lieve, I may say, that all regarded it as a disease of a more 
serious nature, although some thought it might be cured by local 
applications, and others advised a further operation. 
" Dr. Twitchell returned home discouraged, and he decided to 
give up all use of medicines internally, or of external applica- 
tions, but to try a course of the most rigid diet. Starting from 
a theory that malignant diseases arise from the fact that we take 
too much carbon into our systems, he determined to live from 
that time upon a bread-and-milk diet; and if, at the end of some 
months, he did not find any diminution in the disease, he 
intended to use nothing but bread and water. After his return 
from Philadelphia he adhered strictly to the bread and milk. 
He used three times daily from four to six ounces of cream, or 
the richest milk, and same quantity of either white or brown 
bread. He continues that diet still (1849). 
"The results upon the local disease were the following: The 
pains in the part were lessened almost immediately. The puru- 
lent discharge very soon began to diminish, and in two or three 
months it was evident that the disease was not augmenting. 
During the following winter the improvement was more decided. 
In the spring of 1848, being obliged to ride over dusty roads to 
great distances, the eye was more irritated. Nevertheless, he 
felt, and his friends assured him, that the diseased part was 
really lessening and tending towards a cure. After that period 
a steady improvement took place. The ulcerated mass, which 
was so perceptible to me two years since, has wholly gone; and 
now (August, 1849) I can discover no difference between the 
angles of the two eyes, save that in the right one there is a 
minute white spot, about a line in diameter, looking like a scar. 
It is not harder than the adjacent parts; and had I not known of 
the existence of previous disease, I should not have noticed even 
this. There is no discharge, no pain, and a perfect cure seems 
to have been accomplished of a disease that had been existing 
for about ten years, in a patient aged sixty-eight years. 
" The effects of this rigid diet on the constitution, as a whole, 
are interesting. 6 
" Respecting his mental condition, Dr. Twitchell thinks he is 
much less irritable than when he was omnivorous. 
" He had, at one time, an attack of vertigo (to which, how- 
ever, he has been always liable), and finding that he was growing 
corpulent under the diet, he for a time took less of it. 
"He has always been as strong as when indulging in a more 
generous diet. 
" He has been able to breathe better. 
" His digestion has been good, but with a slight tendency to 
costiveness. 
" His organs of circulation have been unaffected. 
" Renal excretion for years a little disturbed, as is not unfre- 
quently the case in persons of his age. 
"Finally, Dr. Twitchell presents, to my mind, the picture of 
a hale, robust man, in perfect health, so far as one can perceive, 
and but slightly touched by the influence of his many years of 
honorable and successful labor. 
"Reflections upon Dr. Twitchell's case: 
" 1. The most important topic involved in the foregoing rec- 
ord is the restoration to health from what seemed to be malig- 
nant disease, and that this result followed the strict diet of bread 
and milk for two yeais. 
" 2. The cessation of asthmatic difficulties, after they had 
troubled the patient for twenty years, and that this cure likewise 
followed the change of diet from an almost strictly animal diet 
to one quite the reverse, viz., strictly vegetable." [Is milk vege- 
vegetable food ?] 
" 3. Some readers may ask if these two cures (see following 
case) are not merely examples of the post hoc, and they may 
deny that there is any complete evidence of the propter hoc. I 
consent to the doubt, for it has entered my own mind. Never- 
theless, if mere coincidences, they are pregnant with important 
suggestions. I confess that, in my own practice, I have never 
met any cases so significant of the power which diet, simply and 
heroically used, has to reorganize a man. 
"4. Dr. Twitchell's case becomes interesting as an evidence of 
the power of a man to subject his body to strict rule. In this 
epicurean age it is quite refreshing to find one who ' eats to live, 
and does not live to eat.' A worthy professional brother of this 
city said, when the case was related to him: 'It might certainly 
be a question whether life were desirable under such a regimen.' 
I honor a hero wherever I find him; and the heroism of Dr. 
Twitchell in undertaking and pursuing this course, merely in 
consequence of a theory, excites in me the greatest delight. In 
this skeptical, unbelieving era, I delight to see any one having 
faith. Whether the theory was correct or not, it matters little; 
the fixed will of its follower arouses my enthusiasm; and this 
brings me to another topic of interest. 
" 5. The theory which governed Dr. Twitchell-was it correct? 
I confess that I am unable to solve the question; I merely sug- 7 
gest it. Some, whom I consider as our ablest chemists, think it 
was by the process of starvation, as described by Liebig, that 
the cure was wrought. It seems to me that this cannot be the 
true explanation, for Dr. Twitchell has always been stout; and it 
will be remembered that at one time he actually gained flesh 
under the diet." 
Case II.-Diet of Dread; Infusion of" Water Doric"; Cure. 
" Dr.- W. H. Thayer, in a letter to me, says: 
" ' I have obtained from Dr. Twitchell all the particulars of 
the case of treatment of osteo-sarcoma which he could give me; 
and as his memory is so accurate, I suppose he has not forgotten 
any thing of importance connected with it. You know the doc- 
tor never takes notes. 
" ' A man about forty years of age consulted Dr. Twitchell in 
relation to a tumor on his scapula, as large as a pint bowl. It 
was evidently osteo-sarcoma, had its usual crackling feel, and 
resembled very closely one in the same position which Dr. 
Twitchell had seen a short time previously, and for which he 
had removed the whole upper extremity, even scapula and clavi- 
cle. In that case the wound healed, but the man died a year ox- 
two afterwards with carcinoma of some internal organ. When 
the second case applied for advice, Dr. Twitchell declined an 
operation, and the man returned home to Vermont. Soon after- 
wards he heard of somebody in New York who could cure him, 
and, applying to this person for advice, received the following: 
"'He was to take from the brook which ran throngh his 
native farm a plant which grew there (the advisex- did not say 
what it would be), and use a weak infusion of it fox- his only 
drink every day until the tumor had disappeared. His diet, 
besides this, was to consist of bread alone. This advice was 
strictly followed; the plant he used was 'watex- dock.' Dr. 
Twitchell happened to see the man two years afterwards, when 
he was still following this course. He found the tumox- had 
nearly disappeared, there being apparently only a trifling thick- 
ening of the skin.' 
''These two histories must be deepiy interesting to all. Pre- 
senting, as they do, the evidence of the powerful influences of 
diet upon the well-being of man, they are of great importance. 
I should not wish, however, to make the inference which some 
may be disposed to draw, that they prove the propriety of an 
almost strictly vegetable diet for all. They simply suggest that 
a long-continued mild and spare diet may cure when other reme- 
dies are of no avail. I am likewise well aware that, under the 
modern revelations given by the microscope in regard to the 
nature of tumors, some may doubt as to the malignant character 
of Dr. Twitchell's disease. Whether it be malignant or not, I 8 
am satisfied of the truth of the following proposition: Dr. 
Twitchell had a disease thought to be of a malignant character 
by the most eminent of the profession, one of whom had once 
extirpated it; it had continued to augment for eight years in 
spite of local treatment; and, finally, under a strict diet it began 
to lessen in severity, and, after a gradual improvement for a year, 
was wholly cured." 
Dr. Bowditch writes that his practice has not embraced like 
experiences. Mine has. I have met with like fortitude and hero- 
ism in diet, and cannot call this age entirely epicurean. 
It should be said in passing that the following cases were 
treated with the intention to combat the disease on grounds to 
be stated further on. 
Case III.-Diet of Animal Food, Tea and Coffee; Cure. 
Near Boston resides a middle-aged widow, several members of 
whose family died of cancer. One of them was a maternal 
uncle whom the writer attended in his last sickness, and made 
the autopsy. White, hard, distinct, globar collections of hete- 
rologous growths were found in the substance of the walls of 
the left ventricle of the heart, of the parenchyma of the liver, 
and of the top of the skull. Before death he used to say that 
he had horns growing out of his head. Spheroidal protuber- 
ances were found in the hair just above the forehead, one on 
each side, and one or two more back of them. At first they 
were thought to be atheromatous tumors, but their fixedness and 
rigid immobility, while the scalp moved over them, dissipated 
this idea. They certainly appeared, as the man said, like the 
budding horns of a calf. A carelul dissection after death 
showed the growths to be white, shiny, hard, spherical tumors 
(schirrhus), three-fourths of an inch in diameter, resting on the 
dura mater. After scooping them out, there appeared well- 
defined, circular, clean-cut holes, passing through the outer table, 
the intertabular substance and the inner table of the cranium, as 
if they had been cut with a trephine. 
Mrs. B., the niece of this case, had been separated for nine 
years from her husband by her parents, as he was an idler and 
would not support his family. His wife loved him, and this 
forced parting greatly depressed her mind. Besides, she had 
retroversion of the uterus. The posterior insertion of the vagina 
on to the uterus was the highest up of any case known to the 
writer, to wit, at or near the fundus. In 1876, Mrs. B. was 
worse. She was laboring under great mental depression from 
hearing that her husband was a great sufferer in Colorado. On 
vaginal examination, several hard, round tumors, somewhat 
matted together, were found behind the uterus. Similar, but 
smaller, growths were found in the enlarged cervix uteri. There 
were some unhealthy vaginal discharges, but they were not 9 
bloody. There was some pain, but not excruciating. The 
countenance had a cachectic look. There was great nervous 
prostration. Little emaciation. The Cutter retroversion pes- 
sary, which she Had worn, could not be borne. Her treatment 
consisted of gentle laxatives, of tonics, as iron and quinine, and 
of a food of carefully selected beefsteak varied with other ani- 
mal food. Vegetable food was excluded, save tea and coffee. 
This course she faithfully carried out, over six months after her 
husband's death, with these results: The suspicious growths dis- 
appeared; she was able to wear her retroversion pessary, and at 
the present time she is living in the enjoyment of her usual 
health, with no reappearance of the growths. 
I am quite ready to have a doubt thrown on my diagnosis, 
because of the recovery, and I will not say I could not be mis- 
taken; but had the lady died, no one would have doubted. Per- 
haps our nosologies are at fault. Perhaps, also, my medical 
education is at fault; but if an average medical student faithfully 
avails himself of a four years' pupilage in regularly chartered 
medical colleges, it is a hard case indeed for his instructors if 
they could not teach him how to diagnosticate a case of cancer 
of the womb. 
Case IV.-Diet of Animal Food; Opium Stopped; Iodoform 
Locally; Tonics and Sponge Raths of Ammonia; Great Im- 
provement. Discontinuance of Treatment; Opium Resumed; 
Death. 
Mrs. F., aged about fifty years, resided in Louisiana. In the 
summer of that year she applied to me for what had been diag- 
nosticated as "cancer of the uterus" by her local physician and 
by an eminent medical authority living in New Orleans. Both 
gave her no hope from any treatment, and she was taking opium 
for relief of her pains. Physique good, though there were 
bloody vaginal discharges, attended with pains more or less 
severe. Intervals of no pain sometimes occurred. Appetite 
good. Found the uterine cavity normal in depth, but dense. 
The cervix was enlarged laterally even to the side of the pelvis, 
ragged, rough, dog-bitten and bleeding, not stony in feel, but 
rather punky to the touch. Just before this trouble came, one 
year previous she was a subject of intense and unrelievable 
domestic mental difficulty on account of the actions of a relative, 
which shattered her nerves and made her almost distracted. 
She was put on an exclusive animal food diet, varying from 
one article to another as she cloyed of one or another, but eating 
mostly beef unchopped. Twice and thrice a week the cervix 
uteri was literally buried in powdered iodoform, which was 
retained by absorbent cotton in the vagina. Some simple tonics, 
sponge baths of ammonia, visiting in different New England 
health resorts, and quinine and iron were prescribed. The use 10 
of opium was stopped. The effect of the treatment was like 
magic. The pains, the bloody flow and the discharges ceased at 
once. The cervix showed less redness, thickeiung and angriness 
of look. In the course of three months the ulcerative appear- 
ances had nearly disappeared. She thought herself cured 
enough to return home and to manage her case herself. Cer- 
tainly the situation, so far as signs, symptoms and feeling were 
concerned, coincided with her opinion, but not with mine. 
Against my best judgment she left. She was most strictly 
enjoined to continue baths and diet and have her physician apply 
the iodoform if there was any reappearance of the disease. But 
these instructions were disregarded, and soon after her return 
home she grew worse, resumed the opiates for the annulling of 
pain, and after nine months died of cancel' of the uterus. 
Had this case recovered I suppose it would have upset the 
diagnosis in the minds of some. Still, it is valuable, by showing 
what diet, with judicial treatment, can do in the arrest of the 
progress of a well-authenticated case. 
It shows also the necessity of keeping one's hold of a patient 
till thoroughly cured. Those who advocate " evolution of sav- 
ages by degredation " can find many arguments for their position 
in the facts of the practice of medicine. It is easier for medical 
cases to run to " devolution " than to " evolution." 
Case V.- Cancer Carpal Bones and Adjacent Tissues, with 
Axillary Complications. Diet of Unchopped Beef, Tea and 
Coffee; Amputation at Middle Third of Forearm; Disease in 
Axilla Quiescent. 
In June, 1882, I saw at Vineland, New Jersey, for the first 
time, Mr. E. B. Osgood. He was suffering from a trouble in the 
palm and back of his right hand, which, in his occupation as 
shoe cutter, he need all the time, and more than the left hand. 
Family have no taint of cancer. His hand had troubled him 
for thirteen months, and was much swollen and open on the 
dorsal surface. A probe introduced through the openings 
showed the carpal bones necrosed. On the under surface of the 
wrist was a curious volcanic-looking swelling, with an opening 
at the apex. It was about one inch and a half in diameter and 
one inch high. It almost touched the palm. It was boggy in 
feel and discharged pus. Did not look like a boil, but was 
malignant in appearance. There were in the right axilla several 
enlarged, stony lymphatic glands, more or less fixed, some of 
which had fistulous openings and were discharging a curious 
flow, which, under the microscope, presented such varied and 
heterologous histological elements that I could not but call it 
cancerous. The patient was put on a diet of unchopped beef, 
with tea and coffee, until the condition of the general health 
was improved. The forearm was amputated at the middle third 11 
by Dr. Ingram and another. A good recovery was made, and 
he has continued more or less strictly on the restricted diet 
ever since, and is now at present in the enjoyment of a state of 
health which seemed impossible before. In fact, he is called 
well. 
The local surgical attendants of Mr. O. regarded his case as 
hopeless, and publicly reported it as cancer. This I have from 
reliable testimony, independent of Mr. Osgood. 
Case VI.-Diet of Beef Essence; Great Improvement and 
Arrest of Disease; Discontinuance of Treatment; Death. 
In 1880, Mrs. C., of Boston, wife of an advertising physician, 
came under my observation as a case of cancer of the womb, 
thus diagnosticated by eminent medical authority. It appeared 
to me a case of uterine fibroid, cancerously degenerated. She 
was about thirty-five years of age, childless, slender build, 
graceful form, and what was termed a "beauty." 
Her disease had lasted for about two years, if I remember 
correctly. She had great pain in the pelvis, profuse bloody 
vaginal discharges, great nervous prostration, some emaciation, 
still a resolute will, and could control her appetite for food 
partly. She was able to go out a little, but with difficulty. She 
had an aversion to beefsteak and roast beef. Hence she was put 
on beef essence, made by putting lean beefsteak (freed from 
bone and cartilage and cut into cubes of about one inch) into a 
closed vessel (a common pint tin pail). This was set into a bath 
of cold water (a common tea-kettle), heated to boiling and kept 
boiling for two hours at least. The juice or essence of the meat 
was then squeezed out by placing it in the center of a linen 
towel, gathering the four corners of the towel together and 
twisting the folded cloth on to the meat. No water or other 
fluid was added to the beef, so that the result was simply the 
concentrated juice. 
As the case was urgent, the beef essence was pushed so that 
she took on some days the juice of ten pounds of beef. One 
result of this was diarrhoea of a profuse but painless character. 
It is well, in passing, to note that beef essence in large quanti- 
ties is a cathartic. Where the patient is feeble, I think this a 
good medicine for obstinate constipation, as the patient is not 
weakened thereby. Mrs. C. made a rapid improvement. The 
hemorrhagic vaginal discharges ceased. She gained in flesh, 
strength, color and looks. The pains were abated, the local dis- 
ease arrested, and she rode considerably. But somehow a fric- 
tion in management arose in which her husband came to the 
front and took charge of the case. The abandonment of the 
beef diet was followed by a return of all bad symptoms, and in 
the course of a few weeks she died of the cancerous disease. 12 
Had this patient continued, I should have tried to have her go 
on to eat solid beef prepared with a chopper. 
Though this is an unfavorable case, still it shows what full 
feeding on beef will do sometimes in a case undoubtedly can- 
cerous. 
Case VII.-Diet of Beef, Tea, Coffee and Milk; Cure. 
Mrs. C., of Somerville, Mass., was a sister of Case VI. Soon 
after the death of her sister, Mrs. C. applied for examination to 
see if she had the same trouble. 
Her mental condition was bad, circumstances limited, and 
countenance cachectic. 
There was some vaginal discharge, not bloody, and also some 
pain in the uterus. These things made her apprehensive and 
anxious. An exploration of the vagina showed knobbed en- 
largements of the os and cervix uteri, dense and stony, not 
ulcerated. The trouble was confined to the neck of the womb. 
She was put on an exclusive animal food diet, adding tea, 
coffee and milk. 
She was faithful to the extreme, perhaps because she knew the 
situation perfectly. The result was that the diseased appearances 
departed, and she is at the present time looking and feeling well. 
Case VIII.-Diet of Chopped Beef' and Hot ~Water; Mild 
Systemic Tonics; Iodoform and Carbolic Acid Locally ; Cure. 
In January, 1882, Miss W., a middle-aged clerk, was discharged 
from a hospital in one of our large cities to die of malignant 
disease of the uterus. The gentleman of the staff who dis- 
charged her has given a diagnosis confirming the above state- 
ment. Prof. R. J. Nunn, M.D., ex-president of the Medical 
Society of the State of Georgia, at my request, examined her 
subsequently, and confirmed the diagnosis. I mention these 
things because I treated her without seeing her. She suffered 
with profuse vaginal discharges, which were sometimes bloody, 
and always offensive, until the use of iodoform removed the 
fetor. The uterus was enlarged, the cervix stony, with consid- 
erable ulceration and excavation. She was conscious of her 
situation, and understood the diagnosis. Although placed in 
unfavorable circumstances, and devoid of her family's sympathy 
in the undertaking, with a heroism worthy of Dr. Twitchell, she 
went on to a diet of chopped beef, cooked, and hot water. Sys- 
temic tonics of a mild character were administered. Iodoform 
and carbolic acid were used locally. Morphological examina- 
tions of the urine, feces and vaginal discharges, once or twice a 
week, furnished me the means of keeping her up strictly to the 
plans. She remained on treatment over a year. From time to 
time other patients of mine told me of the marked improve- 
ment in her case. They said her general appearance was so 
11 never prescribe beef raw, whether chopped or not. 13 
much bettered they hardly knew her. From being confined to 
her bed, she became well enough to attend church and go out to 
walk daily. 
In the summer of 1884, she visited me at my office in New 
York, and I saw her for the first time. Her appearance was 
that of perfect health, and she claimed to be in that condition. 
However, on examination, I found the uterus enlarged-about 
the size of a child's head. There was no ulceration or discharge, 
and I thought if she was able to carry this enlarged uterus with- 
out any trouble that I ought to be satisfied with the results. 
1887, January 3. Examined at office. I found by bimanual 
examination no enlargement of uterus. Os uteri normal or 
nearly so. Some vaginal discharge. Appearance that of per- 
fect health. 
Case IX.- Case of Cancer of the Uterus, with Serious Heart 
Complications. Fed against the Appetite with Tenderloin 
Steak, Broiled. Result, Cure of Uterine and Cardiac Lesions) 
" Some years ago a middle-aged mother of a large family lay 
sick in bed of great grief at the loss of her last daughter, who 
died under peculiar circumstances? There were present cardiac 
hypertrophy and insufficiency of the left auriculo-ventricular 
valve; severe attacks of angina pectoris, when it seemed that 
death was near. The objective lesions, other than those named, 
were retroversion, engorgement, hardening, eversion of the os 
uteri, and behind the uterus four small, hard, marble-like tumors; 
very severe pain, sharp and stinging, in the pelvis mostly; pro- 
fuse vaginal discharge, not bloody; menorrhagia. Added to 
this there was loss of appetite so complete that every thing in 
the nature of food was loathed, even milk being repulsive; loss 
of flesh and strength, being unable to rise erect for ninety days; 
inability to lie on either side for most of the same time; nausea; 
legs cold and sweaty up to the knees; ofttimes great stomach 
distress, with wind colic; urine high colored and of rank smell, 
as if putrid; bowels constipated; a terrible feeling of nervous 
restlessness, causing her to move her feet rapidly up and down 
in the bed; visitors coming and assuring her by their looks and 
actions that she was about to die. Added to this there was 
cancer in her family, her father having died of cancer of the 
stomach and a maternal grandmother of cancer of the breast. 
She was put on general and local treatment, and it was faithfully 
carried out in connection with good nursing; but she gradually 
grew worse, until at the expiration of three months the symp- 
toms were so alarming that I was obliged to take strong and 
decisive grounds, and to tell her: ' You must eat, or die of can- 
cer of the womb. Make up your mind to one or the other.' 
She decided to live and to eat, eating against her appetite, but 
1 See CaseHI., " Feeding Patients against the Appetite," Medical Register, Philadelphia, 
April 2 and 9, 1887. 
s This daughter died after a few days' illness, from the results of the perforation of the 
appendix ceeci by an orange seed. 14 
with her intellect and reason and the advice of her medical 
attendant. She began with tenderloin steak, broiled and cut up 
very fine. The most she could take at first was a quantity rep- 
resented by two teaspoonfuls; this she swallowed by a desper- 
ate effort, her stomach rising against it. She was fed thus every 
four hours. Even after she had fed thus for weeks she felt she 
would rather die almost than eat, but battled against appetite 
by sheer force of will. The only way she could get down the 
beef was by swallowing one mouthful of lager beer, which was 
the only article that did not go against the stomach. The 
quantity of meat was increased gradually, and she was fed two 
months against her appetite. The nausea, however left in about 
three or four weeks, and at this time she was able to move some, 
and was placed in a Cutter invalid chair part of the day. After 
two months of feeding, she was taken carefully to the seashore, 
and there she began to get an appetite, but it took one year 
before she could walk five hundred feet. 
"No person could have eaten so thoroughly against the appe- 
tite as this case did, and it was only from fear of death by can- 
cer, whereof her father died, that made her struggle for life 
with all her powers. It was not death she feared, but the form, 
from which she revolted with horror. This is rather difficult to 
understand, but it is none the less true. 
Results.-" 1. Heart normal in size. 
"2. Valvular insufficiency hardly perceivable. 
" 3. Angina pectoris gone. 
" 4. Uterine disease relieved, tumors disappeared, uterus mo- 
bile, discharges normal. 
"5. Urine clear as champagne, 1015 to 1020 specific gravity; 
no odor; no deposit on cooling. 
" 6. Restoration to active duties in her position as housekeeper 
and mother of the family. 
"No medicine was given after the food treatment, save Hoff- 
man's anodyne when she had palpitation of the heart and suffo- 
cation of breath; the severe, agonizing pain left soon after the 
diet was begun." 
The Ariston, Broadway and 55th street, July 9, 1887. DIET IN CANCER. 
Second Paper-Theoretical Considerations. 
Starting out with the proposition that if any animal gets its 
normal food and is situated amid circumstances favorable to 
life, then the animal will be healthy (this is from the same root 
as hale, whole, holy, holiness); that an individual that is whole, 
symmetrically developed and acting, the tissues normal, the 
organs perfect, that individual will be healthy. 
This is understood by man as applicable to other animals than 
himself. Hostlers know how to bring up a horse to health by 
giving him healthy feeding. Dairymen know how to feed their 
kine; trainers their pugilists, walkists, boat racers, etc. All 
seek to get the systems of the animals in their charge in splendid 
condition, and then the diseased condition will leave as the 
"carpet baggers" did when government was established in the 
South. This is so important a principle that we restate it: 
When the human system has its skin, liver, pancreas, kidneys 
and digestive canal all in splendid order, the vis mediatrix 
naturae of the older writers will set the diseased conditions, of 
any kind, right. By disease we mean morbid changes of organic 
structure, though in a broad sense it includes sickness as well. 
But sickness is rather a functional disorder or derangement than 
one where organic morbid changes are, such as are found in 
chronic disease. 
The expression in the Gospel, " He healed all manner of sick- 
ness and all manner of disease," is very expressive. 
Now, both are sort of physiological mobs. And, if you look 
at cancer as tissue run riot in a mob, it is to be quelled as mobs 
politic are-by law and order. If the riot is too strong for the 
law and order, then down goes the law and order. If the cancer 
riot is too much for the physiological law and order, the body 
systemic perishes. Suppose one of the organs named is affected; 
if all the others are in splendid order, they will do the work of 
the affected organ, on the principle of vicarious function. For 16 
example, the skin will do the work, to a great extent, of the 
kidneys, etc. 
Now, the molecular laying down and using up of all the histo- 
logical elements of the various organs and tissues of the body 
systemic are going on all the time. The rapidity, according to 
the popular ideas, has been estimated to be seven years in which 
the whole body changes. Dr. Lyonell Playfair has stated his 
belief that in seven months it is changed. The writer thinks 
this estimate is much beyond the truth. Be this as it may, seven 
months is enough for our purpose. 
Again, the profession entertains the idea that only the normal 
tissues are subject, and that the abnormal tissues are not subject, 
to this law of molecular change. This is, to my mind, a great 
error. 
Given good blood, good working digestive, circulating, respi- 
rating and secreting organs, if there is a diseased condition, the 
tendency is to remove that condition and establish a healthy one 
in its place. This is seen in practice. Admitting this for the 
nonce, as we should get ahead of our subject if we should prove 
it now, we would observe that food is "an agent of tremen- 
dous power " in the treatment of disease not cancerous. 
For example, in 1862, a man lay sick in Washington with 
typho-malarial fever, so diagnosticated by good authority. The 
disease was contracted in the Army of the Potomac. When the 
writer found him he was delirious, violent, tearing off all his 
clothing, trying to jump out of a third-story window, absolutely 
refusing to take any thing in the shape of food or medicine. 
This state of things had lasted several days. The prognosis by 
competent medical authority being fatal, the writer was left to 
watch for the inevitable death. But somehow the idea of 
starved nerve centers was suggested, and with considerable 
opposition on the part of the household (the effort being looked 
on as entirely useless), some beef essence was made by cutting 
lean beef from the top of the round into cubes of half-inch 
size; these were covered in a closed jar, without addition of any 
water or any thing else; the jar was set in a pot of cold water 
and the water brought gradually to a boiling point and kept so 
for two hours and a half. The juice was then expressed through 
the meshes of a crash linen towel. A coffee cup full of this was 
obtained at night when men were at hand. Five of them held 
the patient on the bed by main force, one at each limb, and one 17 
at the head held face upward. The writer then forced open the 
mouth and poured in the essence, and held it there till it was all 
swallowed. Then he was let go, and, instead of repeating his 
fierce efforts and movements, he lay quietly down and slept like 
a child. At the expiration of two hours, more beef essence was 
administered with the same effect. This proving satisfactory, 
the plan was kept up until convalescence was established, and in 
less than fourteen days the writer took his patient to Mas- 
sachusetts. He is now living, an active business man of Boston. 
Some quinine was given after convalescence, but the cure-and 
there was a cure-was effected by the beef essence and nursing. 
Another case, a daughter of a well-known physician in Mid- 
dlesex county, Mass., aged ten years, had an attack of what he 
called typhoid fever. He had been a surgeon in the army and 
navy during the rebellion, and there is no reason for doubting 
the accuracy of his diagnosis. During convalesence she began 
to fail rapidly. The parents sought advice of the writer, saying 
she would eat nothing but beefsteak, and, fearing to give it to 
her, they were at a great loss to know what to do. " Give her 
all she will eat," was the advice. A letter soon came, asking, 
" How much by weight ? " " Any thing under four pounds," was 
the reply. She ate freely, and in two or three days was up, 
dressed and down stairs, and is alive and well to-day. 
During the summer of 1877, the writer was in Peabody, Mass., 
in consultation with a very reputable and worthy physician, 
in relation to a case of ovarian tumor. After this he said that 
a middle-aged lady, mother of a family, in whom he, for personal 
reasons had a deep interest and did not want to lose her, was 
very low with Bright's disease, confined to bed, pale as the 
sheet she lay on, vomiting all food, emaciated, too feeble to 
raise her head from the pillow or lift her hands, urine one-third 
albuminous, etc. He said, also, there was to be a consultation 
immediately with some physicians to act on the dernier resort 
of transfusion of blood, which hei' husband was to donate from 
his arm. He asked if I would perform the operation, if it was 
thought advisable. On the consultation, the statements were 
found to be true, but there was no apparatus to transfuse the 
blood; so it was arranged that I should return to Boston and 
come back with it at 10 a. m. next day. Before I went home I 
had a solitary interview with the lady. I took my diet list and 
began with the articles named in order and asked if she could 18 
eat them. She answered "No" to each until I named "tripe." 
She said she thought she could eat some. " Stop right here," 
said I; "get some of the best tripe to be found, broil it and let 
her eat all she can or wishes. In case she vomits it, let her have 
some more. Give her nothing else." I went to Boston and 
returned as agreed. At the station the doctor met me and said: 
"There will be no need of performing the operation." I saw 
his face was smiling, so was quite prepared for the favorable 
report that she had eaten tripe, kept it all down, and felt so 
much refreshed that it was needless to go on as proposed. She 
continued to eat tripe. In March, 1886, in company with my 
son, I saw this woman. She was apparently well, though not 
able to do much work. Dr. informed us that the casts and 
albumen did not disappear from her urine till more than a year 
had elapsed. Her diet till cured was mainly tripe. 
Some years ago (1855) I was in the Galt House sitting- 
room, Louisville, Ky. Two gentlemen were there engaged in an 
old-time friendly conversation, and talking so loud as to be heard 
all over the room. It was not a breach of etiquette for me to 
have become a listener. The point of interest here is this: "Do 
you know Mr. has got over his dyspepsia?" "No," said 
the other. " Well," was the reply, " he traveled and sought the 
advice of New York and Philadelphia doctors, and then went 
to Europe to the very best medical talent he could find, and 
came back, after a long time, uncured. But Dr. S. D. Gross 
gave him a very simple prescription that has cured. I want you 
to guess what it was." The other said he could not. " Well, it 
was pickles I " 
In 1881, at the meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 
Dr. Gross was present as one of its most distinguished guests. 
The writer sought him out and told the story above, and asked 
if it was true. "Yes," said he with emphasis, "and you have 
my permission to say publicly, ' Doctors make a great mistake in 
eschewing such things as pickles.' " 
The writer knows of a case of consumption of both lungs and 
double pleurisy, in 1862, given up to die by his father, Dr. B. 
Cutter, a physician who honored his profession for forty years, 
and by himself. This case, after living during one winter on a 
fat hog and nothing else, was cured without attendance or 
medicine, and a few years since was sent to the house of cor- 
rection for being a hard drinker. 19 
A physician's wife, eleven years ago, had a fibro-cystic tumor 
that extended from the epigastrium to within one inch of the 
vulva, the vagina being prolapsed. She went on to a diet of 
lean beef alone, and in three months the cyst had decreased so 
as to just protrude above the pubis. At last accounts this 
case remained cured. 
Another case of fibroid, which had existed for fifteen years, 
under like treatment, combined with the iodide of potassium (she 
was syphilitic), resulted in the complete disappearance of the 
tumor in the course of two months. 
The late Surgeon F. M. Dearborn, U. S. N., left Boston once 
in midwinter on board the " Franklin." They were caught in a 
snow storm and he had at once eighty men down with pneumo- 
nitis. He fed them beef freely, and one case only died, though 
all were severely sick. 
These cases have been adduced only to give the reasons why 
it is a possibility that cancer may be cured in times to come by 
food.1 
To syllogize, some difficult cases of chronic and acute diseases 
of nutrition have been cured by food. Cancer is a disease of 
nutrition. Hence, it is not improbable that cancer may be cured 
by food. 
Or, food has proved to be an agent of tremendous power of 
cure in some acute and chronic organic diseases. Hence, cancer 
may possibly be cured by the tremendous power of a food. 
A comprehensive view of food divides it into animal, vegeta- 
ble and mineral. It is any substance taken into the system to 
sustain life in all its varied phases. It includes the air we 
breathe, the liquids we drink and the aliments we eat. Air and 
water are mineral. Animal and vegetable food are organisms 
with which we all are familiar. 
The human animal, to exist in normal condition, must continu- 
ously and constantly come in contact with foods derived from 
the above sources. The range of alimentary objects for man is 
very large, yet we find him about as helpless, feeble and weak in 
his choosing as other animals, though he must select his normal 
food, as they do. 
1 Cutter, E., M.D.: "Feeding Patients against the Appetite," Medical Register, Phila- 
delphia, April 2 and 9, 1887; " Seventy Cases of Consumption," Trans. Amer. Med. Assoc., 
1880, pp. 338-408; "Food as a Medicine in Uterine Fibroids," Amer Jour, of Obs., Oct., 
1877; "Food as a Medicine in Agalaxia," do., April, 1878; "Food as a Pathologic, Es- 
thetic, Chemic and Physiologic," Amer. Jour. Den. Scien., Balt., Dec. 19, 1879. 20 
But curiously enough, in his early history, nature provides a 
bountiful supply for all his wants, if she is let alone, in the 
shape of that unique and wonderful product of the protoplasm 
of the epithelial cells of the mammary glands-milk. 
Whatever difference of opinion there may be among intelligent 
persons as to the difit of after life, there is none about the first 
supply. It is animal food. Under its use, provided the mother 
is healthy and properly fed, the infant thrives and is one of the 
most beautiful objects found on the earth. The urine is free 
from odor, clear as champagne, no deposit on cooling, 1015 to 
1020 specific gravity, the fecal evacuations are not disagreeable 
to the smell, and when examined are found to be structureless 
and homogeneous under the microscope. 
Milk contains all the elements of a perfect food. Were it not 
so common, the world would marvel at its wonderful properties. 
But it should be taken direct from the glands, in order to pre- 
vent the fermentative vegetations which so soon develop after it 
has been removed. 
The processes of nutrition in a healthy babe are certainly up 
to the standard of perfection, and one would hardly expect to 
find the disease we call cancer in them. 
It is possible that here is the key to Dr. Twitch ell's case; in 
the milk consumed he found a natural aliment by which he put 
his system into so perfect order that the diseased condition near 
the eye was removed, as it were, by the natural laws of the body. 
But to our subject. When the infant has become a child hav- 
ing teeth, the period of weaning is over and the child enters on 
a new regime of existence, cut off from its magnificent food of 
infancy, and the all-important subject of what to eat now has to 
be settled at once. On what grounds is it usually settled ? On 
those of ethics, manners and customs', always more or less, where 
possible, on the ground of aesthetics, or the love of the beautiful 
in relation to appetite or the sense of taste. 
The writer is aware that the cultivated confine aesthetics to 
the senses of sight and sound-architecture, painting, music, 
oratory, etc. But these are all forms of motion; that is, in the 
actual realization of aesthetics. Still, take a hungry man after a 
long day's work, the appetizing food will appear more beau- 
tiful to him by as much as it is more necessary than all the 
delights of the eye and ear. The history of the aesthetics 
includes the delights of the cook as much as those of the artist. 
Indeed, some cooks call themselves artists. 21 
But this as it may, it is an undeniable fact that man selects 
food because it is pleasant to the eye, taste, touch, smell and 
hearing, and not wholly for the purpose of sustaining life and 
satisfying the wants of nature. 
So it will be seen that our common diet lists are made as 
much to correspond with the demand of jesthetics as is possible 
with the monetary means of the parties concerned. 
Parents and guardians select this food. Those things which 
are pleasant (aesthetic) to the taste are much in demand-sugar 
and its preparations for example. It is eaten not for the dietetic 
value, but because it tickles the palates with its delights (gusta- 
tory aesthetics). This article is consumed in enormous quan- 
tities. 
So fruits are judged by the senses of sight, touch, smell and 
taste. When we were boys, did not cherries appear more tempt- 
ing to the eye than they were pleasant to the taste ? 
This subject is worthy of development in a book. 
Other aspects of food are hardly consulted by the great body 
of eaters. These are the chemical, physiological, pathological 
and therapeutical. 
There has been, and probably ever will be, the greatest diver- 
sity of opinion as to what constitutes the natural food of man, 
far more than for the so-called lower animals. 
What to eat has been the watchword of nations, religions and 
governments for ages. Some say no animal food should be 
eaten and others say the reverse. Vegetarians fight animal 
food eaters, and vice versa; but, so far as the writer can judge, 
it would seem as if the question had settled down to the proper 
proportion of animal food to vegetable food. This is not a 
polemic paper; hence we would respect those who respect us, 
and, while we would not try to force our convictions on others, 
at the same time we would maintain our own views and give the 
reasons therefor, as, if they serve no other purpose, they can act 
as a history of opinion prevailing at the present time. 
The writer adopts the plan of Dr. Salisbury (two-thirds ani- 
mal and one-third vegetable) as the natural, normal food for 
man in health after weaning. 
The reasons are as follows: 
1. When men desire to accomplish certain feats, like a contest 
of pugilists or of boat-racing, they go on to this plan nearly, 
with exercise, and the invariable result is a wonderful improve- 22 
ment in physique, and the more rigid the training the better the 
chances of winning in the competitive contests. 
2. Such a diet has been found in my own experience and that 
of others to supply the nursing mother with an abundance of 
milk for her offspring, of a healthy kind, so that the babes have 
thrived wonderfully, and the supply has held out longer than 
when the mother was fed on other food. 
3. The urine of those who live on this proportion of animal 
and vegetable food is almost identical in physical characteristics 
with that of the healthy babe. The usual offensive odor of 
urine does not belong to an absolutely perfect state of health, 
and many persons go through life calling themselves and being 
called healthy when they are not. 
The human body is very accommodating to circumstances and 
elastic. It will exist under unfavorable circumstances, and there 
must be great allowance made for constitution, character, etc. 
But healthy feeding, other things being equal, will give great 
advantages over unhealthy. Some of these circumstances are 
occupation, bathing, exercise, cleanliness, healthy telluric and 
atmospheric surroundings, wars, rumors of wars, pestilences, 
perils by land or sea, governmental conditions, color, sex, pro- 
fession, education, race, industrial and geographical environments, 
etc., etc. 
4. Dr. Salisbury (Alb. Med. Coll., '50), in making this estimate, 
based his judgment on actual experiments. He went into close 
quarters and lived with men whom he hired by the day to live 
on one article of food and water. He kept them under a sort 
of military discipline, having complete surveillance, so that he 
was sure they did not eat any thing else; also, he used to march 
them out on the streets in military order for exercise. At the 
same time he studied the chemical and morphological character- 
istics of the blood, urine, feces and sputa to see the effects. This 
is not the place to give the details, which are intensely interest- 
ing, but he found that no one could live on any one article of 
food for over twenty-two days, save beef on which he could live 
right along and be maintained in health. Crackers played out 
in eight days, and the subjects were filled with the carbonic acid 
gas and fuddled with alcohol produced at the same time in the 
alimentary canal by the fermentation. This is not so surprising 
when it is mentioned that wherever carbonic acid gas is formed 
from the fermentation of carbo-hydrates, alcohol is also found, 23 
whether it is done in the stomach or in the yeast-pot. Those 
who lived on fish exclusively had their urine loaded with phos- 
phates. 
5. The fact that about two-thirds of the fifty-two teeth of a 
human being are mechanically formed for eating meat and about 
one-third are formed for vegetable is also another reason for this 
rule. 
6. Again, the stomach is organized to digest meat, while the 
small intestines are provided with glands to digest vegetable 
tissues. For this reason the diet should be mixed; that is, ani- 
mal and vegetable, and not exclusion of one or the other. 
7. When an adult lives on this proportion, Dr. Salisbury 
found the same physical qualities of the urine and feces as found 
in healthy nursing infants, and he also states that if intestinal 
gases are voided they do not have the rank sulphuretted hydro- 
gen odor so common to discharged intestinal flatus. 
By this it is seen that his standard of health is set high, too high 
perhaps, as it is not often found; but still the' fact remains that 
this result may be obtained in almost any case of disease, no mat- 
ter how chronic or severe, if the patient will live faithfully to the 
plan which is more rigid than two-thirds animal and one-third 
vegetable, as to the writer's knowlege has been done, and is 
being done, in consumption and syphilis, to speak of no more. 
These tests show to the writer's mind the validity of the posi- 
tion of Dr. Salisbury, in a practical way, by actual examples of 
living cases watched by chemicals and the microscope so posi- 
tively that he does not propose to give up until the opponents 
of the position demonstrate that it is incorrect, not by simple 
dicta, but by the tests of physical explorations with the best 
modern instruments of precision. 
It now remains to point out the bearings of food upon cancer. 
If cancer is a disease of nutrition, why is it not the most sen- 
sible way to attack it through the food ? 
Here it will be proper to show the reasons why cancer is called 
a disease of nutrition, as this is a vital point in our argument, 
and then we shall point out the ways in which it may be possi- 
ble for food to modify cancerous condition. 
Reason 1. Cancer, except in its last stages, is not a disease of 
the blood, so far as the writer can learn by morphological blood 
examinations for many years. This is also Dr. Salisbury's 
idea, though quite contrary to the popular and professional 24 
opinion. We are quite willing to receive correction in this 
respect by any competent observer. Beale has taught that can- 
cer is bioplasm with a diseased impress; that is, the blood ele- 
ment has a taint which manifests itself when it has a chance. 
It is latent till the conditions of development arise; till then the 
germs, so to speak, do not exist. This is his explanation of the 
hereditary taint. In our present status of knowledge, Beale's 
view must be accepted till a better is presented. 
But our point is that, as cancer is not found in the blood, we 
must look for it in the solid tissues, which are generally found in 
rank, lawless development; in weak organizations with no pow- 
ers of resistance like healthy tissue, the histological elements 
being out of normal place. This being so, then we may look for 
analogues in other kingdoms where tissue abnormal changes 
occur in organisms that can be studied, or have been studied, by 
man for ages; that is, the vegetable kindom. 
If a farmer undertakes to raise potatoes without manure, the 
crop is liable to be stinted, diseased with parasites, tumors and 
soggy structures, and no one wonders. Other things being 
equal, the result is by thoughtful minds attributed to want of 
proper soluble mineral food, and the researches of scientists bear 
out this popular view; so that it may be said, in general terms, 
if one wants to produce diseases that are analogous to what we 
call cancer in the animal kingdom, it is only necessary to inter- 
fere with this natural condition of growth, of which food is the 
most important element, as without food the plant could not 
grow at all. For more ideas in this direction, see the admirable 
series of volumes by Prof. S. W. Johnson, of the Connecticut 
Agricultural Station, "How Crops Grow," etc., published by 
Orange Judd & Co., New York. 
Reason 2. Cancer is thought to be a disease of nutrition from 
the variety and multiplicity of its macroscopical appearences. 
My father once had a patient, a young man of thirty years of 
age, who died of an obscure disease, the real nature of which 
was proved by a post-mortem examination to be cancerous. 
The writer was the only one who suggested such a diagnosis, 
from the presence of some hard kernels in one testicle. Being 
nothing but a medical student, his opinion could not have had 
much weight. To be brief, the abdominal and thoracic cavities 
contained over a hundred cancerous tumors and conditions, of 
several colors and forms. Some of them were in contact with 25 
the peritoneum, red as a lobster, with flattened, crenated edges, 
one and a half to two inches in diameter, free and unattached, 
like chips carelessly thrown in. Saddling the lumbar vertebrae 
was a large liver-like tumor that weighed several pounds. It 
was in organic connection with the bodies of the vertebrae, 
which, removed and sawn into, disclosed the disease inside the 
bones by the black, burnt color of the spongy structure and its 
diminished trabeculae. The liver had its convex surface nearly 
all occupied with a large, thin, transparent sac filled with a hya- 
line, blue-colored liquid whose morphological elements were 
made up of caudate, mother and hyaline cells resembling carti- 
lage cells in perfection. Over the lungs were found very 
numerous free and variously colored cancerous growths. Some 
were found in the lungs and heart. The nodules in the testicle 
were also cancerous. In short, there was hardly an organ or 
tissue that was not profoundly invaded by the diseased con- 
dition. 
Though this, to the writer, was an unparalleled case and the 
relation is toned down, still it practically exhibits in one instance 
how cancer may riot with all tissues. 
The man suffered untold agonies of body, and the general 
opinion of the physicians present was that this remarkable con- 
dition of organic disease was induced by habits of dissipation, 
wrong feeding and bad modes of life. It is quite certain the 
professional gentlemen would not deny that cancel- in the case 
was a disease of nutrition, though the family was wealthy and 
were good livers, so-called. 
Reason 3. Cancer is regarded as a disease of nutrition because 
fibroids and solid tumors do cancerously degenerate. One case 
of the writer was a large, multilocular, sub-peritoneal, abdomi- 
nal and pelvic fibroid that was carried for thirteen years, the 
subject maintaining her place as mother of a large family for 
this length of time. In early spring she moved into a house 
that had been unoccupied all winter and stood in a low, marshy 
place. She took cold, was overworked and never properly fed, 
and her disease changed its character. She then went to a hos- 
pital, and was nightly subjected to vaginal douches of hot 
water, which, she said, always scalded and made her worse. 
At my visit she had returned home, being given up to die, as 
the disease had involved the body and neck of both bladder and 
womb and all the fibroids. 26 
It is clear that when such growths put on malignancy it must 
be from some modification of the nutrition, and in the case given 
may have been somewhat as follows: The patient had had just 
about vitality enough to carry her fibroids, but when the extra 
demands on her nutrition were added by the domestic exigencies 
referred to, then the tissues of the fibroid ran riot into cancer. 
She attributed the rapid increase of the disease to the depressing 
influences of the hot water. 
Reason 4. Cancer and other organic disease is more prevalent 
among those who are ill-fed, improperly fed and abused bv 
themselves or others. For example, the writer has known a case 
of cancer of the stomach, when it was evidently caused by liv- 
in the suburbs and having business in the city, taking a light 
lunch there and returning late in the day, all tired out and hav- 
ing a hearty supper with much condiments. 
A case of fungus hematoids, involving the left shoulder joint 
and finally attaining a diameter of at least one foot, occurred in 
the practice of the writer's father many years ago. It was an 
awful sight, with its livid volcanic-like protuberances. Indeed, 
it made up the larger moiety of the boy's body at his death. 
Now, this patient was ten or twelve years old, an orphan, obliged 
to pick up a precarious living by setting up nine-pins in a bowl- 
ing alley. For some real or fancied neglect of duty he was 
beaten with a nine-pin. He soon after developed the disease, 
and ran away from the city into the suburbs on a railroad track, 
being found disabled on the track, and was cared for by the 
town authorities as a pauper. This terrible case of cancer was 
made possible by ill-nutrition in poverty and orphanage. 
Wealth does not necessarily give good diet. 
It is almost useless to enlarge on the idea that defective ali- 
mentation is a predisposing cause of cancer, nor is it worth 
while to adduce more reasons in favor of the view that the vari- 
ous diseased conditions called cancer are tissue diseases of nutri- 
tion, though it may not always be possible to trace the connec- 
tion clearly, The warp and woof of disease embrace many dif- 
ferent causes, all very much mixed. Indeed, it is so with most 
every thing, even an apparently trivial event. So, when the 
multiplicity of causes, functions, operations, forces, factors and 
conditions that combine to produce what we call life in the 
human system, are taken into account, it is not to be wondered 
that the aetiology of disease is a very difficult subject, and all 27 
reasoning about it is liable to doubt. Still, as there are salient 
features in landscape scenery by which we identify localities, so 
in the disease under consideration mal-nutrition, however caused, 
is a great predisposing mountain or landmark of identification. 
Mental depression is too often an element in cancerous cases 
to be overlooked. There is nothing like worry to wear on the 
nutrition of the body. Worried lovers of both sexes, even the 
poets rhyme about their loss of flesh. The worried men of busi- 
ness, and women, who do far more work than most business men 
(for the writer believes that a mother of a large family has 
more demands made on her worrying faculties than the heads of 
great mercantile houses), grow poor, though poorness of flesh is 
not an infallible sign of worry. Now, sudden, marked and deci- 
sive loss of flesh from worry shows a terrible strain on nutrition. 
As we now understand it, the explanation is that it takes so 
much force to "run" the nervous system, under the exhaustive 
strain of worriment, that there is none left to " run " the tissues, 
and the waste is not supplied and vital force is not given to the 
local nerve centers of nutrition, and it is but a step or two from 
tissue wasting to the mal-produced tissue of malignant and non- 
malignant diseases. No doubt had Case III. lived on the animal 
diet exclusively she would not have had the mal-nutrition, for 
the following reasons: The animal diet puts the system in splen- 
did condition, and confers strength to bear up under the stress 
of worry, etc. One way in which this is done is by saving the 
forces. It is more work to digest vegetable food than animal, 
and the nerve force saved is no small item. If this is doubted, 
study the effects of baked beans on epileptics, and bad vegetable 
food on children or adults. It would seem as if the ganglionic 
nerve centers that preside over digestion in such cases were so 
completely overwhelmed that all the other nerve centers are 
involved in the loss of force, and the epileptics and the colics 
must be regarded as the result of a job of digestion too great to 
be done; for, change the patients ovei' to animal food, properly 
prepared, and the fits and colics cease. Language here seems to 
fail to be adequate for the ideas to be expressed. 
This case (HL) lived on flour bread, sugar, tea, coffee, some 
animal food, probably about one-sixth of the latter to five-sixths 
of the vegetable food. The flour and sugar being largely in 
excess and both very poor nerve foods, is it a wonder that tissue 
degeneration resulted, as there was a tissue taint ? 28 
Malignancy.-The idea of return after removal and the ten- 
dency to a fatal issue is the position of malignancy which the 
profession and public attach to cancer. 
And the real issue in the present writing is-can a malignant 
disease that has shown its character by recurrence be arrested 
and dissipated. Yes; and Dr. Twitchell's case above proves it. 
But, says my reader, it is only one case. True; but it is posi- 
tive, and, so far as one case goes, it shows the possibility of a 
so-called malignant'disease being not malignant, and thus we are 
set face to face with the dictionary and our landmarks of knowl- 
edge. But are our ideas to be measured by opinions or by facts ? 
Language is not fact. It is, or should be, an account of facts, 
which are eternal, while language changes in form, words and 
spelling, so that in six hundred years one can hardly realize that 
our language is English. 
Again, as the world moves on, things that are declared to be 
impossible by foremost scientific and learned men have become 
facts almost while they are speaking. A notable instance of this 
occurred in 1858, when a learned society in London awarded a 
gold medal to a savant who read an essay on the absolute impos- 
sibility of laying an Atlantic Ocean telegraph cable, but the 
cable was laid before the medal could be put into the hands of 
the scientist, and has been, with others, a great accomplished 
fact in our modern civilization for over one-fourth of a century. 
Wonder if the savant got his gold medal ? If so, I don't think 
that he makes much show of it. So, also, of Faraday and his 
celebrated utterance as to the absolute impossibility of ocean 
steam navigation. 
These are not adduced to show that all new things are possi- 
bilities, but that some are, and people should be cautious not to 
take positions as to impossibilities unless they are well acquaintd 
with the facts in the case. You say that there is but one case 
like Dr. Twitchell's, but this is not the same thing as saying that 
there are none such. 
The fact is, there is but little encouragement to report such 
cases as things now are. Few have the courage of a Bowditch to 
speak out the truth when it must disturb settled convictions and 
established opinions. And who is there that knows but that 
other cases, faithfully carried out like Dr. Twitchell's, might not 
have been cured ? As, if one case has been cured, it is possible 
more may be. (The other cases in the first paper are very respect- 29 
fully presented to the consideration of the profession.) Just 
here is the rub. Few have the energy of 4 character to act up to 
their convictions and carry out a plan that rides across the usages 
of society, the appetites and the deranged desires of a sick and 
diseased body. It is training for health against disease. There is 
also paralysis and indifference to the fact of a great impending 
catastrophe, though the condition of mind may be just the oppo- 
site. Writes a patient: " Cancer is the worst word in the world 
to me. No one could have failed faster than I did for two 
weeks after what Dr. M said to me. * * * You who are 
so strong and sensible may think me silly in this, and we will let 
it go that I am." 
This great element of depression aids much in the tissue riot. 
In my patients hope must be inspired, faith must be raised, and 
not only must the physician believe, but he must make the patient 
believe. Every thing must be husbanded. There must be no 
force expended on any thing else but running the system and 
fighting the disease. 
There are different types of disease. Cancer has them too. 
Some types are quick and kill almost by a blow, or destroy like 
a hurricane or earthquake, against which man is powerless. 
These admit of nothing like possibility of cure. There is not 
time left to save. Like a stroke of lightning, it kills resistlessly. 
But when the disease is slow, the circumstances favorable (and 
this means a great deal), and all work together with rigid fidel- 
ity, why, there is a possibility of doing good work. 
The best circumstances are a sanitarium devoted to this pur- 
pose, where systematic treatment can be practiced, the food 
selected carefully, the cooking perfect and the patients not 
allowed to vary from the plans. Oftentimes they begin, run 
well, and seem to realize the situation, and the growth shows a 
diminution, and then they will fall away from the diet, and often 
charge all the results of the backsliding to the plans of treatment. 
It is a great thing to manage patients and keep them under con- 
trol. All will allow this, for, if not, no good results can be 
expected to follow. 
Every means should be used, then, to keep up the discipline. 
Frequent communications, examinations of the blood, urine and 
feces to see if there has been any variation, and, when detected, 
to stimulate the poor, weak offender to the narrow, straight path 
of duty again. Lapses must not go unnoticed. The patient 30 
must be watched with jealous, interested care. Then, if time 
enough is taken, comes the possibility of cure. But all the 
chances can be lost very easily. A few mouthfuls of wrong 
food will do essential damage. "Few appreciate how sensitive 
the system is to daily and hourly impressions" (Dr. Salisbury). 
A weak, irresolute mind, wavering character, restless and peevish 
disposition, a constant view of the dark side-these qualities 
will not succeed in almost any work. One who gets well by 
self denial, faith, perseverance, pluck, determination, energy, is 
like the victor on the battlefield after a long and tough fight. 
There is the same exhilarating triumph, and after the conflict is 
over he finds a conversion of appetite. Food liked before 
becomes distasteful, and it is very easy to go on in the right mode 
of living, so that, the predisposing cause being removed, the 
disease is vanquished by the simple molecular changes of nutri- 
tion. Nature does the work. Medicines are valuable to stimu- 
late the glands, remove engorgements and keep all the organs in 
good working condition. This is their place, for medicines do 
not cure of themselves. When a ship's cargo is shifted so that 
her spars dip into the sea, it is rearranged by the crew, and the 
ship rights itself, and the crew say, "We have righted the ship." 
This is certainly so, but nature had a great share in the work. 
The crew simply acted in obedience to the laws of gravitation. 
So man cures disease. The medicines, food, etc., help nature, 
and, in accordance with her laws, she does the cure. 
Agree to have a possibility of cure of cancer, there must be 
time-one to four years. This is a barrier to many. They 
could go one to three months, but not a year, and so throw away 
their chances. 
It takes means. Unfortunately the terrible disease comes to 
the poor and ignorant, and there is no help for the words of the 
preacher, " The destruction of the poor is their poverty." It is 
a costly matter to provide for the sick of this class with food, 
care, nursing and medical attendance. The medical profession 
give away an immense amount of unrequited services, but so 
long as they are not supported by the public, they often give 
away more than they can afford to and impoverish themselves. 
Here is a chance for the benevolence of the rich if it could be 
rightly adjusted. Many lives are now being saved by the bounty 
of the rich, but many are being lost for the want of aid. It 
would be possible to save more cases than now, were more means 
at command. 31 
Advertising Quac/cs Who Have Published Claims to Cure 
Cancer.-The papers are full of such claims, and, in the present 
state of the medical profession, it is difficult to see how any 
estimate of them, other than bad, can be made, simply from the 
fact that it is very dangerous for any medical person in good 
and regular standing to have any thing to do with quackery. 
Still, the people patronize them, and reports of cures are rife. 
Now, it is possible that some of these cases may be cancer and 
may have been cured by quacks. History shows that Paracelus 
was a quack, yet he did much to advance medicine. Not long 
ago one of the most eminent surgeons was extolled by a layman 
for his wonderful operations on the bladder; yet a swineherd in 
France is said to have introduced the operation for stone, and 
must have been a "quack." A good many surgeons have 
founded their great reputations on the same operation of centu- 
ries ago. 
There is said, on good authority, to be in a town in central 
New York a family who treat cancers by the use of a paste, 
the formula of which is known only to two members. This 
family have made immense fortunes, have large establishments 
and effect many cures (?). Not long ago a distinguished poli- 
tician of Boston had cancer of the leg and went to this place for 
treatment. . It was a bad case and seemed unfit for any treat- 
ment, and was dismissed. This action was creditable, as there 
was plenty of money in the case. 
There is evidently something to be learned here. If we had 
patronage in this country, as in the old, such a patron could 
organize a commission of medical men and have it authorized 
to make an investigation by some body, as the American 
Medical Association, and pay the expenses. The report of such 
a commission would settle the matter for the profession. 
Should it be found that it is a fraud, the patron and profession 
would gain credit for using all honorable and legitimate means 
to avail themselves of the knowledge. Should it be found that 
there were cures, then due credit should be awarded as deserved. 
In passing, as to these pastes. The writer, a few years ago, 
had a case of epithelioma of the tongue, in Connecticut. The 
tumor was about an inch and a half long and one inch wide. 
The case was put on diet, with the understanding that if there 
was no improvement, the tumor was to be removed by the gal- 
vano-cautery. Officious relatives and friends took charge of the 32 
case, and the patient was sent to North Adams and operated on 
by paste. He suffered indescribable agonies, "the torments of 
hell," as he told my son afterward, and caught cold by staying 
in an unwarmed room, and died at his home a short time after 
his return. I saw him a short time before his death, and found 
that the cancer tissue was destroyed. It is only a short time 
since that my son informed me that while attending the clinic of 
one of our most eminent surgeons he heard of a case of epithe- 
lioma almost similar to this one, which was removed eight years 
ago by the galvano-cautery, the patient now being in good 
health. These North Adams cancer people sent down a young 
man to doctor General Grant, and it was with great pleasure 
that I wrote to one of the General's physicians informing him of 
the facts above stated. My letter was given to a Boston Herald 
reporter and published in that journal; so I trust that his posing 
as a martyr of bigoted doctors was somewhat offset. 
What makes the writer think that some cases may be cured 
as represented is that he once saw a case that twelve years pre- 
vious had been under the care of a so-called famous cancer doc- 
tor in Boston. The woman said she had been as she was when 
seen by writer-bloody vaginal discharges, agonizing pain, walls 
of vagina and urethra like stone, terribly 
She died thus, and the writer could not but look on hei' as a case 
of cancer. However, more lately the writer saw another case of 
this same doctor, called cancel' and treated by him for years as 
such, but which, when examined, proved to be a fistula in ano 
of fifteen years' standing in a remarkably healthy woman. A 
papilla, large as a forefinger's end, occupied the perineal end of 
the fistula, and the ordinary surgical operation with one cut did 
away with the " cancer." 
They make thorough examinations of these things in Paris. 
A few years ago a mulatto gained a tremendous celebrity as a 
cancer doctor, and was surrounded with an abundance of wealthy 
and fashionable clients, and made fame and fortune. But when 
he was given wards in a hospital and cases were carefully 
watched, his star went down like a descending rocket, as his 
claims were not sustained. It may be his treatment was thwarted 
unfairly. We hope not, as it is a terrible subject to trifle with. 
Every advantage should have been given the claimant, as there 
doubtless was, even if irregular and ignorant. 
But, a regular medical man, who has, or thinks he has, any 
thing to throw light on the possibilities of curing cancer, so 33 
long as he observes the rules of good society, is entitled to a 
respectful hearing. It is too bad that original workers are bull- 
dosed, insulted, ridiculed and put down by men who profess to 
be gentlemen, scholars, physicians. This is bad for the workers, 
who are thus soured and discouraged. It is bad for the profes- 
sion, as it often loses the knowledge it needs to save life and 
prevent misery. It is, to speak plainly, a devilish thing thus to 
throttle progress, and is worthy of the dark ages of ignorance 
and superstition. It was enough to raise a storm of righteous 
indignation to see how some tried to hoot down Dr. Sayre and 
his plaster jackets. To interfere with any means whereby the 
miseries of poor humpbacks could be relieved was a hellish 
thing. 
Ere long it is hoped to have an institution in New York where 
these cases can be treated on the plans here laid down, and 
where physicians may come and study results for themselves, 
and see results which, judging from the past experiences, justify 
a hope that the possibilities named will be realized. There 
will be no arguments, but facts. If it is found that we have 
been mistaken, we will apologize for our errors of judgment, 
but no apologies will be given for having acted up to our con. 
victions. 
The Ariston, Broadway and 55th street, July 30, 1887. The following are still in print or will be issued soon: 
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"Malaria:" McNaughton Prize Essay, Albany Medical Col- 
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