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. Iv 2.5% of all cancers in men.
other parts of the world where
, rsonal cleaniness is neglected,
may reach as high as 17.5%
all cancers. Among Mohamma-
ns the incidence of cancer of the
nis is less than among the un-
cumcised races, but greater than
oong the Jews. Probably this is
result of the delay in circum-
,.-mg the young.
Jewish Women Profit
Hut another fact also recognized
i>\ several physicians. They found
•hat among Jewish women, cancer
.,f the cervix, that is, the neck
ni the womb, was extremely rare.
Vet this disease was very common
.mtong non-Jewish women living
miei exactly the same conditions.
There was no satisfactory explan
ation of this phenomenon. Some
doctors blamed it on the religious
bathing habits of Jewish women,
\ et. in modern cities, these habits
a re essentially no different from
those of their non-Jewish neigh
bors. Others resorted to the dis-
redited race theory, saying that
the resistance of Jewish women to
.ancer of this cervix was an in
herited characteristic. This view
had little in its support, because
except for the cervix, cancer ap
pears to be just as prevalent a-
tnong Jewish women as among the
non-Jewish.
The Proof
A clue to the truth was un
covered twenty years ago by Dr.
W. S. Handley who had worked
in the P'i j i Islands. There were
two groups of inhabitants of these
islands the native Fijians and im
migrant Indians. The two groups
never mixed with each other. In
all there were 90,000 Fijians and
70,000 Indians. The native Fiji
Islanders practiced circumcision
for all makes at the age of pub
erty while the Indians did not.
During eight years, Dr. Handley
found (inly three Piji women with
cancer of the cervix, but at the
same time, twenty-six Indian wo
men had this disease. Dr. Handley
believed that it was the practice
of circumcision that was respon
sible for the difference of more
than nine to one in the late of
cancer of the cervix among the
Fijian and Indian women.
At New York’s Mount Sinia
Hospital similar findings were
made by Dr. H. N. Vineberg. Dr.
Vineberg studied the statistics on
19,000 women coming to the out
patient department of that hospital.
95% or over 18,000 of these wo
men were Jewish. 5%, or 1,000,
were non-Jewish. There were nine
cases of cancer of the cervix in
the 18,000 Jewish women, and the
exact same number in the 1,000
non-Jewish women. In other words,
cancer of the cervix was eighteen
times more common among Gen
tile women than among Jews.
The Missing Link
Specializing in diseases of the
urinary organs and the prostrate
gland which surrounds the neck
of the bladder, we were in a good
position through the years to an-
The Southern Israelite
al.vze and differentiate between
the Jewish and non-Jewish patients
coming to the Institute of Applied
Biology, a cancer research organi
zation, which will soon move its
new quarters, the former Beth
Israel Hospital, at 90th and Lex
ington Avenue, New York City.
In men over 45, the prostrate
gland commonly grows in size
and often tends to obstruct the
flow of urine from the bladder.
FYequently this enlargement re
quires an operation. In most cases
this swelling of the prostrate
is entirely benign and is a sign of
advancing age. However, in about
20% of eases the prostrate gland
became cancerous. That figure of
20% stuek in our minds. As busy
urologists, we had operated upon
a very large number of men with
prostatic obstruction, yet it seem
ed to us that in our patients, a
large number of whom were Jew
ish, the cancer rate was consider
ably lower than 20% . We review
ed 1,500 of our cases and came
iq) with a very interesting fact
which not only accounted for the
difference in our figures, but led
us to want to climb to the house
tops and cry out our findings and
their meaning to the world, es
pecially to the non-Jewish which
did not practice circumcision. We
found that the rate of cancer of
the prostate was over ten times
greater in our Gentile patients than
among the Jewish ones. To us there
appeared only one answer. The
Jewish males were all circumcised
while very few of the non-Jewish
patients had been circumcised. We
had come upon the missing link.
It had furthermore been
shown by Dr. A. Platt and Dr.
A. C. Kohn-Spayer that the in
jection of smegma, the secretion
that collects beneath the foreskin,
could cause cancer when injected
into mice.
The Chain Appears Complete
The chain seemed almost com
plete. Jewish males never had can
cer of the penis, very rarely con
tracted cancer of the prostate gland.
Jewish women were not prone to
cancer of the cervix. It was logi
cal to assume that whatever the
causative agent of cancer of these
organs might be, it collected be
neath the foreskin of the penis in
the smegma of uncircumcised males
from whence it traveled to the
prostate or was transmitted to the
cervix of the female during inter
course. At any of these three spots
the causative agent could and fre
quently did bring cancer. Yet by
the simple expedient of circumcis
ion, probably the most ancient of
surgical procedures, the Jews had
been able to avoid much of those
terrible diseases. Cancer of the
penis is a relatively rare type,
but cancer of the cervix kills 12,-
000 women in the United States
each year at the present time,
according to the figures of the
American Cancer Society. It is the
second most common type of can
cer found among women and prob-
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