Standish High School - Crimson Rambler Yearbook (Standish, ME)

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CANCER Tumors are of two kinds, harmful and non-harmful. Non- harmful tumors remain dormant after they attain a certain size. Harmful turmors, cancers, have no limit to their growth and they destroy life by extending into healthy tissues. There are many types of cancer, these are classified according to the tissue from which the growth originates. In the beginning, a cancer is composed of a few microscopic cells, much smaller than a pin. Some grow very rapidly, some very slowly, depending on the condition of the body. When it begins to grow there are no symptoms, but later, when the cancer presses on the nerves, pain results. Bleeding begins only whbn the cancer ulcerates. Any other symptoms are not due to the cancer itself but to its interference with some normal function of the body. A cancer looks like a lump of tissues. It has no roots but it may grow out through the vessels of the body to distant parts. Cancer usually begins to appear at the age of thirty-five and increases rapidly in frequency until the age of sixty-five- a little earlier in women, a little later in men. After seventy-five, the occurrence of cancer decreases rapidly, until it practically disappears at ninety. The cause of cancer is not known, though there are two popular superstitions regarding it. One is, that cancer may be produced by a blow, and the other, that cancer is due to a germ. There is not the slightest evidence to prove either of these. A large number of cases in which it was claimed that a blow had caused the growth of the cancer have been investigated, and it has been found that the disease existed before the blow was received. When the large numbers of people who in their lifetime have received blows in various portions of their bodies was compared to the small numbers who have developed cancer, it is evident that there can be no relationship between the blow and the beginning of the tumor. It is true that a blow may stimulate a cancer, which has already started to grow. Often times the blow brings out the evidence of the tumor for the first time. v The reasons for believing that bacteria have nothing to do with cancer are based upon the results of experimental work on animals. If a cancer is transplanted from one animal to another of the same species, it will grow and ultimately kill the second animal. If some of this cancer tissue is crushed or frozen so that all the cells present are broken up, it will not produce a tumor when grafted on to another animal. While we do not know the cause of cancer, we do know the condtions under which it is liable to arise, and these are any chronic inflammation or ulceration of the skin or of any other organ of the body. If, for instance, the skin is burned, and the burn remains for a long time, there is always risk that a cancer may develop in the site.

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4, The many opportunities which America offers by her free enterprise, 5, That all men are innocent until proven guilty, 6, That the price of liberty was not cheap, which is shown by America's history, and never will it be cheap. 7, That we have two of the best known documents in the world which express freedom, The Declaration of Independence , and The Constitution , 8. The four freedoms: The freedom of speechg The freedom of religion: The freedom from fearg The freedom from wantg 9, The opportunities that our children have and the free institutions where they may acquire an education. 10, The workers' compensation and old age benefits for people who have reached the age of retirement, 11. That the people of the United States are represented in the government equally and have a great deal to do with how it is run, l2, The patent laws and copyright laws, which gives a person the right to claim an invention which they them- selves have invented, , To me this is Americanization, This is what men have fought for for ages, and, finally, attained in the establishment of the United States, Men whose names we have never heard have fought to keep this freedom, Men have died to keep this freedom and will continue to die es long as there is a threat to their freedom and security, why shouldn't they? They are fighting for- themselves and not for some king or dictator, This may not be perfect and many people say so but what government is? I am sure that one could not find another governmontanywhere on the face of the earth that represents the average, common everyday man as well as the American goverment does. To me this is Americanization, shore men can live, work, and sleep in a country as free as ours, and may God keep it that way. Earl Ramsdeil '50

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The only generally successful cure for cancer is its re- moval, as early as possible, by surgical means. The use of the knife is preferred to caustics or cautery because it permits of a cleaner cut and more possibility for deep inter- nal cancer involving the stomach or intestines, but, occasion- ally, cancers of the skin are treated by caustic with fair results. It is, however, better to have the cancer cut out clean, as the scar is then much less marked and the healing is more rapid. A certain number of cancers of the face, and especially small early cancers on other sites can occasionally be cured by either radium or x-ray, but, as yet, we have no published statistics to show what proportion of cases can be permanently cured by either of these agents, the number of cures, reported after some forty years of use of both these, is exceedingly small, and the results are not nearly so good as those which follow surgical removal of the entire tumor. It must be remembered that cancer is not a blood disease and that when it begins it is no larger than a pin-point, so that if we could make a diagnosis and cut it out in time, every cancer would be curable. The dificulty is to make a diag- nosis and as the symptoms absent, it is impossible for a physician to learn of the beginning of the disease in time to cut it all out. With every improvement in diagnosis of cancer the possibility of curing the disease has increased. E. Irish 150 POLIOMYELITIS Poliomyelitis is also known as Infantile Paralysis, or Heine Medins Disease, It is an acute infectionous disease, chiefly involving the spinal cord and its membranes, and some- times it advances into the upper parts of the mid-brain and the brain itself. It has not been definitely decided which is the agent of this disease and it has not been isolated yet. It has been communicated to lower animals lchiefly monkeysJ and has been transmitted through several generations. It is thought to be a filterable virus of some kind, which is in some ways like the virus of the disease known as hydrophobia. The mode of entering the body is not definitely known, but the naso-phatynx is supposed to carry it. It is a comm- unicable disease and occurs in epidemic form, such as measles, chickenpox, whooping cough, etc. It.is found chiefly in the temperate zones and the epidemics occur chiefly in the autumn and summer but epidemics in the fall and winter are not un- known. It affects children. The attack often begins with mild respiratory or gastroin testinal disturbances. There are signs of neuralgia and one may have neuralgic pains and headaches. There also may be an increasing irritability to light, sounds, and touch.