Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1915 — Says Hot Drinks Are The Cause of Cancers. [ARTICLE]

Says Hot Drinks Are The Cause of Cancers.

Indianapolis Star. Dr. William J. Mayo, in an address delivered recently in Baltimore made some observations concerning cancer that are timely, in view of the fact that the state board of health reports the disease to be rapidly increasing as a cause of death in Indiana. Dr. Mayo is a famous surgeon of many years’ experience and has operated in many hundreds of cancer cases. He is inclined to the opinion, based on observation, that burns are a contributing cause in many cases. He explained that locomotive engineers often have cancer of the leg from heat of the furnace and that in men of other occupations cancer is most common where heat is applied to the body. He says that cancer of the lip is not so common as when clay pipes were in use. “I can not get it out of my head,” he is quoted as saying, “that the cause of cancer of the stomach is the drinking of hot drinks.”

If he is right in his deductions concerning heat as applied to other parts of the body, it seems reasonable to believe that he is right in hjs view of the effect of hot drinks. Almost everyone has at one time swallowed tea or coffee so hot it burned the mouth. It is easy to believe that such substances taken into the stomach might be the contributing cause of cancer. At least when a man of authority is willing to go on record as to flie danger from such drinks, it is worth while for laymen to heed what he says and act accordingly.