Some Physico-chemical and Biochemical Aspects of Malignant Neoplasms

It is necessary to point out in the first place that the present communication deals only with a particular phase of the general problem presented by malignant neoplasms. That it is a not unimportant one, however, is evident when we recall that in any living organism there must operate in each cell certain chemical reactions and physico-chemical changes characteristic of the organism and capable of modification to meet external alterations in environment. As regards the pathological significance of the changes observed in the transition from the normal or healthy type of cell to one which is diseased, a chemist is scarcely competent to express any very definite opinion though in the present instance, for reasons given later, it would appear that the view which has been urged by Blair Bell and others in favor of regarding the onset of malignancy as essentially a dedifferentiation to a more primitive type is a reasonably strong one.