“Back home went the lawyer, and spread that story quietly. To-day the specialist’s practice is almost ruined; but he has learned an expensive lesson. The moral is this: If your doctor is doubtful whether your trouble is cancerous, and advises delay, get another doctor.
“Then, there is the ‘conservative’ type of practitioner, who is timid about making a complete job of his operation. One of this kind had the case of an acquaintance of mine who was stricken with cancer of the breast. The physician, under persuasion of his patient, I presume, advised excising only the tumor itself, but the husband, who had been reading up on cancer, insisted on a radical operation. The entire breast was removed. A year later the woman’s unmarried sister was afflicted in exactly the same way; but the discovery was made earlier, so that the case was a distinctly favorable one. The girl, however, would not consent to the radical operation, and the physician (the same man) declared it unnecessary. The tumor alone was cut out. The cancer reappeared and another operation was necessary. The girl died after cruel suffering. The married sister is alive, and, five years after the operation, as sound as a bell. That physician is a wiser man; also a sadder one. There’s a special moral to this, too: the operator has but one chance; he must do his work thoroughly, or he might better not do it at all. When cancer returns after operation—which means that the roots were not eradicated—it is invariably fatal.
“Here are a few things which I want every one of you to remember. Had I had time I’d have had them printed for each of you to take home, so important do I think them:—
“No cancer is hopeless when discovered early.
“Most cancer, discovered early, is permanently curable.
“The only cure is the knife.
“Medicines are worse than useless.
“Delay is more than dangerous; it is deadly.
“The one hope, and a strong one, is prompt and radical operation. A half-operation is worse than none at all.
“Most, if not all, cancer is preventable by correcting the minor difficulty from which it develops.