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Mini Review Volume 4 Issue 3
Despite outpatient data on patterns of drinking alcohol, budd’s 1855 monograph on the stomach failed to recognize the potentiality of prevention
Wilson Onuigbo
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Department of Pathology, Medical Foundation and Clinic, Nigeria
Correspondence: Wilson Onuigbo, Department of Pathology, Medical Foundation and Clinic, 8 Nsukka Lane, Enugu 400001, Nigeria, Tel 2.35E+12
Received: June 24, 2015 | Published: February 25, 2016
Citation: Onuigbo W. Despite outpatient data on patterns of drinking alcohol, budd’s 1855 monograph on the stomach failed to recognize the potentiality of prevention. J Cancer Prev Curr Res. 2016;4(3):108-109. DOI: 10.15406/jcpcr.2016.04.00123
Abstract
Cancer history literature revealed striking statements on alcohol drinking. Surprisingly, the references dated up to 1855 when Budd’s monograph on the stomach still wondered about the role of alcoholism in stomach cancer causation. Therefore, this article presents several examples that should have hastened the appreciation of its prevention. This raises the need for further research.
Keywords stomach, cancer, causation, alcoholism, history, prevention
Introduction
Personal interest in the history of cancer dated back to 1958.1,2 Nowadays, some preventive studies have been published personally in this Journal.3-6 Here, the slant is on preventing stomach cancer from the historical angle of alcoholism.
Historical texts
Perhaps, the simplest historical reference to not drinking alcohol was to the patient being “a man of temperate and steady habits.7 ” This is a word defined in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as “sober.8”
Sober habits were described mildly in terms of the patient being “temperate” by Paget9 himself. While Seymour10 qualified a man as being “remarkably temperate in his habits,” Cooper11 promoted a woman who was “temperate in her habits.” Another rendition was “perfectly temperate.12”
Temperate people were naturally contrasted with the intemperate. Thus, there was “intemperance as to strong liquours13” as well as “given to the intemperate use of malt and spirituous liquours.14” There was also the generalized description concerning “an intemperate man.15” Intemperance was described in a woman who “had been for many years a notorious dram-drinker.16” Scarpa17 noted two patients; one of them was “addicted to intemperance” and the other “addicted to fermented liquours.” Bell’s case was of a sailor “addicted to drinking.18”
Literature citations
Drinking, as regards etiology, was contemplated by Walshe,19 who in 1846 cited the literature on the role of alcohol in some cases but with an element of doubt as follows: “I see nothing impossible in the sequences; but they are certainly rare: and their apparent occurrence may in reality depend, sometimes at least, upon the excessive difficulty of distinguishing the symptoms of cancer at the very outset from those produced by the other two kinds of gastric affection.
Affection due to alcoholism was considered by Forbes et al.,20 who were equally guarded in their earlier 1835 contribution to a cyclopaedia, wherein they maintained that, in addition to heredity, “Other causes are to be enumerated of a more definite and local character; amongst which is to be first mentioned the long-continued use of ardent spirits.”
Monograph on the stomach
So far, we have ranged from cases of temperate drinking of alcohol to grades of intemperance. Moreover, we have just noted the existence of some revealing literature cases. Accordingly, let us consider a monograph. By 1855, Budd21 published it as regards the stomach. Set against the aforesaid important backgrounds, what was his conclusion? It ran thus in terms of gastric cancer:
The disease occurs in all classes of society, from the emperor to the beggar; in the sober as well as in the dissipated; in people who live in the country, as well as in those who live in towns. Indeed, no habits or conditions of life have as yet been shown to have any powerful influence in bringing it on.
Conclusion
On weighing the historical evidences, it is apparent that, during the first half of the 19th Century, the hunt was hot for the role of alcohol in its causation. Clearly, doubts prevailed even by 1855, when a monograph on the stomach was published authoritatively. Hence, I am persuaded that the historical panorama was wide enough to blame alcoholism and to propose prevention. Why this failed during that prime period requires further research.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
None.
Funding
None.
References
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- Onuigbo WIB. A historical criticism of tumor metastasis. J Hist Med Allied Sci. 1958;13:529–531.
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- Ormerod EL. An account of a case of encephaloid disease of the endocardium. Med Chir Trans. 1847;30:39–49.
- Webster M. Merriam–Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th Edn, Springfield, Massachusets, USA. 2003; p. 559.
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- Seymour EJ. Cases of tumours in the abdomen arising from organic disease of the stomach, with remarks. Med Chir Trans 1828;14(1):222–250.
- Cooper A. Observations on the structure and diseases of the testis. Structure and disease, Philadelphia : Lea & Blanchard, London, England. 1845; p. 33.
- Warren. Tumours of the stomach. 1838; p. 576.
- Alison WP. Outlines of pathology and practice of medicine. W Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1849; p. 524.
- Cooper A. Observations on the structure and diseases of the testis. Observations on the structure and disease, Philadelphia : Lea & Blanchard, London, England. 1841; p. 142.
- Wilks. Cancerous masses at the base of the heart. Trans Path Soc, London, UK. 1855;6:113–114.
- Mackintosh J. Elements of pathology and practice of physic. John Carfrae & Son, Edinburgh, Scotland. 1828;1: 282.
- Scarpa A . A treatise on the principal diseases of the eyes. Cadell Davies, London, England. 1818; p. 519.
- Bell C. Surgical observations. Longman, London, UK. 1816;p. 386.
- Walshe WH. The nature and treatment of cancer. Taylor & Walton, London, UK. 1846;p. 284.
- Forbes J, Tweedie A, Connolly J. Diseases of the stomach. In the cyclopᴂdia of practical medicine. 1835;4:653.
- Budd G. On the organic diseases and functional disorders of the stomach. The organic disease and disorders, John Churchill, London, UK, 1856; p. 168.
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