Amazing, March, 1931
The Earth’s Cancer
by Capt. S. P. Meek
ARNES,” said Dr. Bird suddenly,
brave as the average man, I guess.”
“how brave are you?”
“You’re a great deal braver than the
“C The secret service average, old dear; I know that from what we operative looked puzzled at the question.
have been through together. I have seen you
“Why—I don’t know, Doctor. As face armed men without a quaver, but how
Amazing
2
would you face an armed enemy that you
it. There is a chance that we will die of cancer could not see and that you knew no way of
before this case is finished, but I have a very combating?”
strong hope that both of us will pull through
“I didn’t back down in that Mammoth
all right. We start tonight. Pack your grips for Cave affair, Doctor.”
five days on the train.”
“I know you didn’t, but there you were
“I’ll be ready, Doctor. Am I to work in
facing at the worst sudden and probably the dark for the present or can you tell me painless death. Could you face without where we are going and why?”
wavering one of the most painful and
“I’ll tell you what I know, Carnes. We
lingering deaths known, a death which is the
are going to Lassen County, California, to the apotheosis of the horrible? Specifically, could vicinity of Cinder Cone National Monument.
you face with equanimity the almost certain
As for the reason, here is an approved
contraction of a malignant incurable form of
requisition for your services for an indefinite cancer?”
period. I had it made out before I tackled you Carnes’ face blanched at the scientist’s
because I knew—Oh, go to the devil!”
words.
Dr. Bird turned away to hide a
“Mind you, Carnes,” went on the suspicion of moisture in his eyes. Carnes read Doctor, “I am not ordering you to do so, I am
the requisition with growing astonishment.
not even asking you to do it; I am merely
“Under direction of the United States
offering you the opportunity to do what Public Health Service!” he exclaimed. “What Walter Reed did, to sacrifice your life for the is it, a dope smuggling case?”
public good in a particularly unpleasant
“No. We are going to Lassen County
manner without reward and probably without
to try to ascertain the cause of an epidemic of recognition. I can’t even guarantee your a new and particularly virulent form of widow a pension if you accept my offer. In
epithelial cancer which has cropped out in that fact, I strongly advise you to refuse it, a thing vicinity.”
which you can do with honor as it is not in
“What can we do about locating the
your line of duty.”
cause of cancer, Doctor? That sounds like a
“Are you going to face that danger,
job for a doctor instead of a secret service
Doctor?”
operative and a Bureau of Standards man.”
“Foolishly, I am. In the work I am
“Ordinarily
it
would be but there are
about to do I feel the need of a man beside me some very peculiar features about this
upon whom I can depend in any emergency
outbreak.”
and we have worked together a great deal——
Dr. Bird consulted a file of reports on
”
his desk and went on.
Dr. Bird’s voice died away in
“The first cases broke out almost a
nothingness and he turned abruptly on his
year ago, not long after the eruption of Cinder heel. Carnes leaped to his feet.
Cone in June, 1929. At first it was thought to
“You damned fool!” he cried huskily.
be merely a skin rash of some sort, but the
“When do we start?”
cases did not yield to treatment but got worse Dr. Bird swung around and grasped the
and more cases developed. Furthermore, after
detective’s hand.
the disease had run to a certain point, it
“I knew that I could rely on you. became associated with a peculiar form of Carney, old dear,” he said feelingly. “Cheer
mania and the patients refused further
up, it probably isn’t as black as I have painted treatment and left their homes and took to the
The Earth’s Cancer
3
woods. They eluded pursuit when they could
“Such is the problem to solve. Since
and fought desperately when captured by their
cancer is not a germ disease, at least the germ friends who tried to bring them back for has never been isolated and identified, it is treatment.”
probably useless to look for a source of germ
“Delirium is not uncommon in cancer
infection, but there is undoubtedly some
cases, is it, Doctor?”
reason for the outbreak and we are going to
“Not in carcinoma cases, especially seek this reason.”
shortly before the end, but this was not
“It sounds like the wildest of wild
delirium, it was mania. There was no wild
goose chases I ever went on, Doctor, but I’m
raving, the patients talked rationally and knew with you. When do we start?”
what they were doing, but they refused
“Tonight. I have been working for two
treatment and evinced a strong dislike for the weeks getting things ready and we have a
society of every one except those similarly
drawing room on the 6:37 tonight.”
afflicted. The things got beyond the powers of
“I’ll be there, Doctor.”
the local medical men to cope with and the
Public Health Service was asked to send help.
DURING the long trip across the continent,
A surgeon was sent up there and after the first Carnes had abundant opportunity to examine
examination of a case, he pronounced the the voluminous file of the Public Health trouble to be a form of epithelial cancer, a
Service reports on the case but he found little diagnosis which the local men had missed.
more than an elaboration of the outline Dr.
“Other surgeons and nurses were sent
Bird had given him. The Doctor consistently
into the stricken area and a field hospital refused to discuss the case and Carnes knew established, but to no avail. Not only did the his friend too well to try to force a confidence.
first cases refuse treatment but new cases went The Doctor sat for hours poring over recondite on cropping up, among them both of the local
volumes on cancer and related subjects and in
surgeons. Three Public Health Service making elaborate mathematical calculations.
surgeons and two nurses, who were sent there,
Although he worked miracles in
have been stricken with the disease and have
chemical and physical experiments which had
also acquired the peculiar mania which leads
made his name a household word in scientific
them to refuse treatment and to shu
n all circles, Dr. Bird’s knowledge of medicine was persons except other sufferers.”
at best a superficial one. Realizing this fact, he
“It would be rather natural for those
bent his splendid mind to the task before him
working with the victims to contract the and by the end of the trip there was little that disease, would it not?”
had been written about it that was not stored in
“No. Cancer is not ordinarily his brain.
considered to be contagions and naturally
At San Francisco he broke the trip long
every possible aseptic measure was used by
enough to visit Crissy Field and make certain
the surgeons and nurses. Public Health Service arrangements before they took the “Klamath”
is completely stumped. They have made no
north. At Redding a Public Health Service
headway toward checking the epidemic and
surgeon met them with a truck and a
since their own people have started passenger car and Dr. Bird supervised the contracting the disease, they hesitate about
loading into the truck of a number of cases
ordering more surgeons in, for they may be
with the Bureau of Standards seal on them.
simply signing their death warrants when they
When the loaded truck departed, Carnes and
do so.
the Doctor climbed into the passenger car and
Amazing
4
were whirled off in the same direction.
penetrated deeply into it. It doesn’t stop
“What progress have you made, if any,
suddenly but sort of dies away from the
Doctor Albright?” asked Dr. Bird.
center. When you approach that area you can
“None at all, Doctor Bird, I am sorry
see it ahead of you shoulder high or higher
to say,” replied the young Public Health when it only comes to the knee where you Service surgeon, who was both their guide and
stand and a short distance behind you it will
driver. “There are now, according to the best
be only ankle high. It rather resembles huge
information we have, two hundred and seven
rushes or cat-tails but it can’t be anything of cases, but there may be a good many more.
that sort for there is almost no water around
That county is full of Indians and we have no
here. It is a funny thing but right in that area way of telling how many of them have been
they are having the finest crop of grass they
afflicted.”
have ever had, despite the fact that it is an
“What
particular
type of cancer is it?”
unusually dry season. On the other hand the
“It is a very malignant and previously
usual vegetation, jack pines and bunch-grass,
unknown type of epithelial cancer. Instead of
is dead or dying.”
eating in, it forms ex-crescenses on the surface
“What is killing it?”
and spreads very rapidly. The mania which is
“Some sort of a dry rot. I think. At any
invariably associated with it after the rate the things hold their exterior form but turn development reaches a certain stage is also a
a dirty grey in color and they crumble into
new thing in cancer physiology. So far we
dust at a touch.”
have no record of any deaths, but there may
“Does this condition extend over the
easily be some, for all the advanced cases
entire area where the disease is prevalent?”
have taken to the woods and efforts to capture
“Yes, to a limited degree. Toward the
them have been futile. Three of our surgeons
outer edge the change in vegetation is hardly
have gone into the woods hoping to do some
apparent except as an unusually good grass
good, but none of them has returned or sent
crop out of season. At the same time there are out any word. Whether they had been detained
comparatively few cases of cancer developing
by force or whether they have fallen victim to around the edges and they are mild ones
the disease and the mania which accompanies
which spread slowly. When we get to Lassen
it, no one knows.”
National Monument where our field hospital
“Is the area where the victims have
is, I will show you a map with the dwelling of retreated well defined?”
every known case plotted. It makes a rough
“It is quite clearly defined. It is, or
circle about fifteen miles in diameter, while
used to be, a patch of almost barren lava beds the part where the victims hide and where this with only a few jack pines and a little bunch-peculiar vegetation really flourishes is a circle grass growing on it. At present it is covered
about three miles in diameter located right in with a very profuse and exceedingly green
the center of the larger area.”
vegetation, lush rank growth which is almost
Dr. Bird changed the subject and did
jungle-like in its density, while the old pines not refer to it again until the map of which Dr.
and bunch-grass seem to have died off.”
Albright had spoken was laid before him.
Dr. Bird sat up with sudden attention.
“It is easy to see that there is a definite
“What sort of vegetation is this new
center of virulence,” he remarked. “The closer growth?” he demanded.
you get to the center, the more cases are
“I’m not enough of a botanist to indicated.”
answer your question, Doctor. I have not
“That is true. We have also noticed
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5
that when a case comes in that the rapidity of is of interest to note that within ten days,
development is inversely proportional to the
every member of the searching party
distance the patient has lived from the center developed cancer. Their cases spread with
of the disturbed area.”
extreme rapidity and within two weeks of its
“Does the area of infection seem to be
appearance, every one of them slipped away
spreading?”
and joined the other victims.”
“It did at first, but from such reports as
“I’m going to explore that country. I’m
my predecessor left—poor chap, he contracted
especially interested in that peculiar
the disease and joined the madmen in the
vegetation you spoke of.”
rocks four months ago, I can discern no spread
“I can show you some samples of that
during the past six months. There seems to be
at once if you care to see them. I have some
a quite definite limit beyond which the which were brought out by the searching infection does not extend.”
party.”
“Have you cleared everyone out of this
Dr. Albright left the room and returned
area?”
with some long blades of vegetation of a rush-
“We have tried but we have met with
like appearance but of a very vivid and
poor success. Most of the inhabitants are poisonous-looking shade of green. They were Indians and while we may move them one
not smooth but were knobby with
day, the next day they will drift back again.�
��
protuberances from which sap flowed. The
“It looks as if the spot we should odor was that of rank decaying vegetation.
explore is right here.”
“One of the surgeons brought out a
Dr. Bird placed his finger on the center
root and planted it here to see what it would
of the shaded area.
do,” explained Dr. Albright. “It grew very
“Undoubtedly you are right, but so far
rapidly at first but it isn’t doing especially no one has entered the forbidden area, if I may well just now.”
call it such, and returned. Whether they have
Dr. Bird examined the plant with
been prevented by force from returning or
interest.
whether they have become mad and remained
“I’ll have to wait until my microscopes come
voluntarily, I can’t tell you. Now we cannot
before I can tell much about it,” he remarked.
get any one to go within miles of the center.”
“Let me see some of the dead bunch-grass and
“Nevertheless, I am going to explore
pines, if you have them.”
it. Is there a level place around here large
Dr. Albright brought in some samples
enough to land a plane?”
and Dr. Bird crumbled them reflectively in his
“Yes, several. I may tell you that one
hands.
attempt was made several months ago to
“The microscope will tell the tale,” he
explore the center by plane which resulted in
said at length. “You have a plane landing field disaster. The plane, judging from the reports
marked out?”
The Earth’s Cancer by Capt Page 1