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Electrostatics and Current Electricity
for JEE (Advanced) 3rd edition - eBook
PDF
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Contents
ystem of
3kg a
n in f
CM
vii Motion
Preface of Charged Particle in Uniform Electric Field 1.29 MZ
1. Coulomb's
Law and Electric Field 1.1-1.58 Concept Application Exercise 1.5
Electric Dipole 1.31
Introduction 1.1
Electric Field Due to a 1.31
Electric Charge 1.1 Dipole 1.32 ball
Properties of Charge 1.1 Electric Field Intensity Due to an Electric
Dipole pe sy
Conductors and Insulators
at Point on the Axial Line
a
1.2 1.32 be
Electric Field Intensity Due to an y o
Electroscope 1.2 Electric Dipole
at a Point on the ore
Charging of a Body 1.2 Equatorial Line 1.33
Electric Field Intensity Due to a Short
Charging by Friction 1.2 at Some General Point
Dipole
Charging by Conduction 1.33
1.2 Dipole in a Uniform Electric Field
Charging by Induction 1.34
1.2
Torque 1.34
Concept Application Exercise 1.1 1.4 Electric Dipole in Nonuniform Electric
a
Field 1.35
Coulomb's Law 1.5
Qualitative Discussion 1.35
Coulomb's Law in Vector Form 1.5 Quantitative Discussion 1.35
Superposition Principle 1.6 Concept Application Exercise 1.6 I.36
Comparison Between Coulomb's Law and Solved Examples .37
Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation 1.6 Exercises I.44
Concept Aplication Exercise 1.2 1.12 Single Correct Answer Type I.44
Electric Field 1.13 Multiple Correct Answers Type 1 49
A Point
Charge in an Electric Field 1.13 Linked Comprehension Type
Eiectric Field Due to an Isolated Point
Charge 1.13 Matrix Match Type 1.54
Electric Field Due to a Point
Vector Notation
Charge in Numerical Valhue Type 1.35
1.13 Archives I55
Graphical Variation of E on x-axis Due to a Answers Key
Point Charge 58
1.14
Electric Field 2. Electrie Flux and Gauss's Law 2.1-243
Intensity Due to a Group of Charges .14
Concept Application Exercise 1.3 1.18
Electric Flux .1
Electric Field Due to Continuous Distribution of Charge Concept Application Exencise 2.
1.19 Gauss's Law
Field of Ring Field of a Charged Condueting Sphere 10
Charge 1.19
Electric Field Due to an Selection of CGiaussian Surface 10
Infinite Line Charge 1.20
Field of 10
Uniformly Charged Disk 1.21 Electric Field Outside the Sphere
Field of Two Electrie Field luside the Sphere 10
Oppositely Charged Sheets 1.21
Concept Application Exercise 1.4 1.26 Field of a Line Charge 211
Lines of Force Selection ot Gaussian Surtace 2.11
1.27
Properties of Electric Lines of Force 1.27 Field of an Intinite Plane Sheet of Charge 2.12
Different Patterns of Electric Field 1.28 Selection of Gaussian Surtace 2.12
Lines
Electrostatic Shielding (or Field at the Surface ot' a Conductor 2.12
Screening) 1.28
iv Contents
Potential Energy of a System of Two
Electric Field Due to a Charged Isolated
2.13 Charges in an External Field
Conducting Plate 3.14
2.15 Concept Application Exercise 3.3
Field of a Uniformly Charged Sphere 3.17
2.15 Electric Potential of Some Continuous Charge
Selection of Gaussian Surface
Distributions
Electric Field Inside the Sphere 2.15 3.18
2.16 Charged Conducting Sphere 3.18
Electric Field Outside the Charged Sphere Non-Conducting Solid Sphere
3.20
Electric Field Due to a Long Uniformly Charged Outside the Sphere
2.16 3.20
Cylinder Inside the Sphere
Volume Charged 3.20
Electric Field Near Uniformly Uniform Line of Charge
2.17 3.21
Plane
2.17 A Ring of Charge 3.22
Field Inside the Plane
2.17 Charged Disk 3.23
Exercise 2.2
Concept 4pplication Energy for a Continuous Distribution of Charge
Force Acting on the Surface of a Charged 3.23
2.19 Self-Energy of a Charged Spherical
Conductor
2.19
Shell Sphere 3.23
Concept of Solid Angle
Self-Energy of a Unifomly Charged Sphere 3.23
Calculation of Solid Angle of a Random Surface
Self and Interaction Energy of Two Spheres 3.24
at a Given Point 2.19
Electric Field and Potential Due to Induced
Solid Angle of a Surface Not Normal to Axis
Charges 3.24
of Cone 2.20
Earthing of a Conductor 3.25
Relation in Half Angle of Cone and Solid Angle
Charge Distribution on a Conductor Surface
at Vertex 2.20
(Uniqueness Theorem) 3.26
Solid Angle Enclosed by a Closed Surface 2.21
Circular Motion of a Charged
Sobved Examples 2.22
Particle in Electric Field 3.27
Exercises 2.28
Single Correct Answer Type 2.28
Potential Due to an Electric Dipole 3.29
Multiple Correct Answers Type 2.32
Work Done in Rotating an Electric Dipole in
Linked Comprehension Type .34
a Uniform Electric Field 3.29
Matrix Match Tipe .37
Potential Energy of an Electric Dipole in
Numerical Value Type 2.38 a Uniform Electric Field 3.29
Archives 2.39 Concept Application Exercise 3.5 3.31
Answers Key 43 Van de Graaff Generator 3.32
3. Electric Potential 3.1-3.55 Solved Examples 3.32
Introduction 3.1 Exercises 3.39
Work Done to Move a Charge Single Correct Answer Tipe 3.39

in an Electrostatic Field 3.1 Muliple Corect Answers Type 3.44
Potential and Potential Difference 3.2 Linked Comprehension Tipe 3.47
Potential 3.2 Matrix Matech Type 50
Continuous Charges 3.3 Numerical Value Tiype 3.52
Potential Difference 3.4 Archives 3.53
Potential Difference in a Uniform Electric Field 3.4 Answers Key 3.55
Equipotential Surface 3.6 4. Capacitor and Capacitanee 4.1-4.62

Concept Application Exercise 3.1 3.8 Introduction 4.1
Finding Electric Field from Electric Potential 3.9 4.1
Capacitance
Concept Application Exercise 3.2 3.12 Isolated Conductor 4.1
Electric Potential Energy 3.12 Capacitance of a Spherical Conductor or Capacitor 4.1
Potential Energy of a System of Three Charges 3.13 System of Conductors 4.1
Potential Energy of Charges in an Extenal Electric Parallel Plate Capacitor 4.2
Field 3.14
Potential Energy of Single Charge in an
Force Between the Plates of a Parallel Plate Capacitor 44.3
Spherical Capacitor
External Field 3.14 4.3
Cylindrical Capacitor
Conductor o r Capacitor 4.4
Energy
Stored in a Charged
4.4
Concept Application Exercise Contents V
Alternative Method Drift Velocity 5.1
Parallel Plate Capacitor 4.4 5.6
Energy
Density in a
4.7 Relation Between Drift 5.6
Sharing of Charge Structural Model for Velocity and Current 5.7
on Connecting Two Electrical Conductor
Distribution of Charges Mobility 5.8
Charged Capacitors
4.8
Effect of 5.110
Exercise 4.1 4.9 Temperature on Resistivity and Resistance
Concept Application 4.10 Temperature Cocfficients of 5.10
Dielectric Resistivity
Temperature Coefficients of Resistance 5.10
Polarization Vector 4.10
Finding Coefficient of Resistance 5.10
Polarisation Vector and
Relation Between
Surface Charge Density 4.11 Validity and Failure of Ohm's Law 5.11
on the
Surface of Dielectric 4.11
Induced Charge 5.12
Plate Capacitor with Dielectric 4.12 Electromotive Force and Potential
Capacity of Parallel Internal Resistance of a Cell Difference 5.13
on Different Parameters 4.12
Effect of Dielectric 5.13
Exercise 4.2 4.15 Combination of Resistances
Concept Application 5.14
Combination of Capacitors 4.15 Resistances in Series
5.14
Series 4.15 Voltage Divider
Capacitors Connected in 5.14
Resistances in Parallel
Finding Potential Difference Across the Capacitors Current Divider for Two Resistances
5.15
Connected in Series 4.15 5.15
Connected in Parallel 4.16 Current Divider for Three Resistances
Capacitors 5.15
Finding Potential Difference Across the Capacitors Calculation of Effective Resistance 5.16
Connected in Parallel 4.16 Short and Open Circuits 5.16
Finding Equivalent Capacitance 4.17 Equipotential Points 5.16
Infinite Chain of Capacitors 4.22 Electrical Symmetry 5.17
Concept Application Exercise 4.3 4.22 Method of Equipotential Reduction 5.18
Kirchhoff's Rules for Capacitors 4.24 Shifted Symmetry 5.19
Application of Kirchhoff's Loop Rule in a Circuit 4.24 Path Symmetry 5.19
Circuits Based on Wheatstone Bridge 4.26 Concept Application Exercise 5.3 5.21
Extended Wheatstone Bridge 4.26 Kirchhoff's Law for Electrical Networks 5.23
Nodal Analysis of Capacitive Circuits 4.28 Guidelines for Applying Kirchhoff's Law 5.24
Concept Application Exercise 4.4 4.29 Determination of Equivalent Resistance by
Problems Involving Plates Kirchhoff's Method 5.27
4.31
Balanced Wheatstone Bridge 5.28
Force on Dielectric Slab Concept Application Exercise 5.4 5.30
4.34
Solved Examples Combination of Cells 5.32
4.36
Exercises Series Grouping 5.32
,44
Parallel Grouping .32
Single Correct Answer Type .44
Mixed Grouping 5.34
Linked Comprehension Type Superposition Principle 5.35
54
5.35
Matrix Match Type Concepts
4.56 S.35
Numerical Value Type Nodal Method of Circuit Analysis
4.58 5.39
2 Archives Concept Application Exrercise 5.5
4.60
Answers Key Charging and Discharging of a Capacitor
5.61 Through a Resistance 5.40
5. Electrice Current and Circuits
5.1-5.68 5.40
Introduction Charging
5.41
Electric Current 5.1
Charging of the Capacitor-Other Approach
5.1 5.43
Energy Dissipated While Charging
Statement of Ohm's Law 5.44
5.1 Discharging of Capacitor
Dependence of Resistance on Various Factors 5.2 5.44
Change in Resistance Energy Dissipated While Discharging 5.45
5.2 Same Initial Charge
Current Density Charging a Capacitor Having 5.46
5.3 Equivalent Time Constant
Colour Coding and
Tolerances for Resistances 5.5
VContents
Concept Application Exercise 5.6 5.47 7. Heating Effects of Current
Solved Examples 5.49 Heating Effects of Current 7.1-7.24

Exercises 5.59 Cause of Heating 7.1
Single Correct Answer Type 5.59 Hcat Produced by an Electric 7.1
Current
Multiple Correct Answers 7ipe 5.67 Electric Power Produced in the 7.1
Circuit
5.70 Units of Electric Energy and Electric 7.1
Linked Comprehension Type Power
5.73 7.1
Matrix Match Type Concept Application Exercise 7.1
5.75 Maximum Power Transfer Theorem 7.5
Numerical Value Tipe
5.76 7.5
Archives Some Applications
5.79 15
Answers Kev Concept Application Exercise 7.2
7.7
6.1-6.36 Solved Exumples
6. Electrical Measuring Instruments 7.8
6.1 Exercises
Galvanometer 7.14
6.1 Single Correct Answer Type
Ammeter 7.14
6.2 Multiple Correct Answers Type
Voltmeter 7.18
Conversion of a Galvanometer into Voltmeter 6.2 Linked Comprehension Type . 19
Exercise 6.1 6.6 Matrix Match Type
Concept Application 7.20
6.7 Numerical Value Type
Potentiometer 7.22
Construction of Potentiometer 6.8 Archives 7.23
Uses of Potentiometer 6.8 Answers Key 7.23
Meter Bridge or Slide Wire Bridge 6.12
6.12
Solutions S.1-5.141
Construction
6.12 Chapter 1
Checking of Connections
Working 6.12 Chapter 2 S20
Rheostat 6.14 Chapter 3
Concept Application Exercise 6.2 6.14 Chapter 4
Solved Examples 6.15 Chapter 5
Exercises 6.21 Chapter 6 5.1

Single Correct Answer Type 6.21 Chapter 7 S.130
Linked Comprehension Type 6.30 Appendix:
Chapterwise Solved January 2019
Matrix Match Type 6.32 A.1-A.
JEE Main Questions (All Sets)
Numerical Value Type 6.33
Archives 6.35
Answers Key 6.36
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to a new prediction of his future fortunes, in the service to which he
had in these words devoted him, making known to him the earthly
reward which his services would at last receive. “I solemnly say to
thee, when thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself and walkedst
whither thou wouldest; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch
forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither
thou wouldest not.” This he said, to signify to him by what sort of
death he should glorify God. That is, he in these words plainly
foretold to him that he should, through all his toils and dangers in his
Master’s service, survive to old age; and he also alludes to the loss
of free agency in his own movements; but the circumstances are so
darkly alluded to, that the particular mode of his death could never
be made to appear clearly from the prediction. The particular
meaning of the expressions of this prophecy, can of course be best
shown in connection with the circumstances of his death, as far as
they are known; and to that part of his history the explanations are
deferred.
After this solemn prediction, he said to him, “Follow me.” This

command seems not to have any connection, as some have
supposed, with the preceding words of Jesus referring to his future
destiny, but to be a mere direction to follow him on his return from
the lake, either back to Capernaum, or to the mountain appointed for
his meeting with the great body of his disciples. From what comes
after this in the context, indeed, this would seem to be a fair
construction; for it is perfectly plain that as Christ said these words,
he turned and walked away; and that not only Peter followed at the
direction of Christ, but also John of his own accord,――and it is
perfectly natural to suppose that the greater part of the disciples
would choose to walk after Jesus, when they had met under such
delightful and unexpected circumstances; only leaving somebody to
take care of the boats and fish. Peter following his Lord as he was
commanded, turned around to see who was next to him, and seeing
John, was instantly seized with a desire to know the future fortunes
of this apostle, who shared with him the highest confidence of his
Master, and was even before him in his personal affections. He
accordingly asked, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” or more
properly, “What shall become of this man?” But the answer of Jesus
was not at all calculated to satisfy his curiosity, though it seemed, in
checking his inquiries, to intimate darkly, that this young apostle
would outlive him, and be a witness of the events which had been
predicted in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem, and the
second coming of Christ in judgment on his foes of the Jewish
nation. This interesting scene here abruptly closes,――the Savior
and his followers passing off this spot to the places where he
remained with them during the rest of the few days of his
appearance after his resurrection.
The mountain appointed for his meeting, &c.――It would be hard to settle the locality of
this mountain with so few data as we have, but a guess or two may be worth offering.
Grotius concludes it to have been Mount Tabor, “where,” as he says, “Jesus formerly gave
the three a taste of his majesty;” but I have fully shown, on much better authority, that Tabor
was not the mount of the transfiguration; nor can we value highly the fact, that “habet veteris
famae auctoritatem,” for we have abundant reason to think that in such matters, “the
authority of ancient tradition” is not worth much.
There are better reasons, however, for believing Tabor to have been the mountain in
Galilee, where Christ met his disciples. These are, the fact that it was near the lake where
he seems to have been just before, and was in the direction of some of his former places of
resort, and was near the homes of his disciples. None of the objections that I brought
against its being the mount of the transfiguration, can bear against this supposition, but on
similar grounds I now agree with the common notion.
Paulus suggests Mount Carmel, as a very convenient place for such a meeting of so
many persons who wished to assemble unseen, it being full of caverns, in which they might
assemble out of view; while Tabor is wholly open (ganz offen) and exposed to view; for it
is evident that all the exhibitions of Christ to his disciples after his resurrection, were very
secret. For this reason Rosenmueller remarks, that Jesus probably appointed some
mountain which was lonely and destitute of inhabitants, for the meeting. But Tabor is, I
should think, sufficiently retired for the privacy which was so desirable, and certainly is
capable of accommodating a great number of persons on its top, so that they could not be
seen from below. The objection to Carmel is, that it was a great distance off, on the sea
coast, and should therefore be rejected for the same reasons which caused us to reject
Tabor for the transfiguration.
the ascension.
The only one of his other interviews with them, to which we can
follow them, is the last, when he stood with them at Bethany, on the
eastern slope of Mount Olivet, about a mile from Jerusalem, where
he passed away from their eyes to the glory now consummated by
the complete events of his life and death. Being there with them, he
commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
promised Comforter from the Father, of which he had so often
spoken to them. “For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be
baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Herein he
expressed a beautiful figure, powerfully impressive to them, though
to most common perceptions perhaps, not so obvious. In the
beginning of those bright revelations of the truth which had been
made to that age, John, the herald and precursor of a greater
preacher, had made a bold, rough outset in the great work of
evangelization. The simple, striking truths which he brought forward,
were forcibly expressed in the ceremony which he introduced as the
sign of conversion; as the defilements of the body were washed
away in the water, so were the deeper pollutions of the soul removed
by the inward cleansing effected by the change which followed the
full knowledge and feeling of the truth. The gross and tangible liquid
which he made the sign of conversion, was also an emblem of the
rude and palpable character of the truths which he preached; so too,
the final token which the apostles of Jesus, when at last perfectly
taught and equipped, should receive as the consecrated and
regenerated leaders of the gospel host, was revealed in a form and
in a substance as uncontrollably and incalculably above the heavy
water, as their knowledge, and faith, and hope were greater than the
dim foreshadowing given by the baptist, of good things to come.
Water is a heavy fluid, capable of being seen, touched, tasted,
weighed and poured; it has all the grosser and more palpable
properties of matter. But the air is, even to us, and seemed more
particularly to the ancients, beyond the apprehension of most of the
senses, by which the properties of bodies are made known to man.
We cannot see it, or at least are not commonly conscious of its
visibility; yet we feel its power to terrify, and to comfort, and see the
evidences of its might in the ruins of many of the works of man and
of nature, which oppose its movements. The sources of its power
too, seem to a common eye, to be within itself, and when it rises in
storms and whirlwind, its motions seem like the capricious volitions
of a sentient principle within it. But water, whenever it moves, seems
only the inanimate mass which other agents put in motion. The awful
dash of the cataract is but the continued fall of a heavy body
impelled by gravity, and even “when the myriad voices of ocean
roar,” the mighty cause of the storm is the unseen power of the air,
which shows its superiority in the scale of substances, by setting in
terrible and overwhelming motion the boundless deep, that, but for
this viewless and resistless agency, would forever rest, a level plain,
without a wrinkle on its face. To the hearers of Christ more
particularly, the air in its motions, was a most mysterious
agency,――a connecting link between powers material and visible,
and those too subtle for any thing but pure thought to lay hold of.
“The wind blew where it would, and they heard the sound thereof,
but could not tell whence it came or whither it went.” They might
know that it blew from the north toward the south, or from the east
toward the west, or the reverse of these; but the direction from which
it came could not point out to them the place where it first arose, in
its unseen power, to pass over the earth,――a source of ceaseless
wonder, to the learned and unlearned alike. This was the mighty and
mysterious agency which Jesus Christ now chose as a fit emblem to
represent in language, to his apostles, that power from on high so
often promised. Yet clear as was this image, and often as he had
warned them of the nature of the duties for which this power was to
fit them,――in spite of all the deep humiliation which their proud
earthly hopes had lately suffered, there were still in their hearts,
deep-rooted longings after the restoration of the ancient dominion of
Israel, in which they once firmly expected to share. So their question
on hearing this charge and renewed promise of power hitherto
unknown, was, “Lord, wilt thou not at this time restore the kingdom to
Israel?” Would not this be a satisfactory completion of that triumph
just achieved over the grave, to which the vain malice of his foes had
sent him? Could his power to do it be now be doubted? Why then,
should he hesitate at what all so earnestly and confidently hoped?
But Jesus was not to be called down from heaven to earth on such
errands, nor detained from higher glories by such prayers. He knew
that this last foolish fancy of earthly dominion was to pass away from
their minds forever, as soon as they had seen the event for which he
had now assembled them. He merely said to them, “It is not for you
to know the times or the seasons which the Father has appointed,
according to his own judgment.” Jesus knew that, though the minds
of his disciples were not then sufficiently prepared to apprehend the
nature of his heavenly kingdom, yet they, after his departure,
becoming better instructed and illuminated by a clearer light of
knowledge, would of their own accord, lay aside that preconceived
notion about his earthly reign, and would then become fully
impressed with those things of which he had long before warned
them, while they were still in the enjoyment of his daily teachings.
Being now about to bid them farewell,――lest by entirely cutting off
their present hope, he might for a time overwhelm them,――he so
moderated his answer, as not to extinguish utterly all hope of the
kingdom expected by them, nor yet give them reason to think that
such a dominion as they hoped for, was to be established. He
therefore, to their inquiries whether he would at that time restore the
ancient kingdom of Israel, replied that it was not for them to know the
times which the Father had reserved in his own counsels, for the
completion of that event. But he went on to inform them of something
which was for them to know. “You shall receive power, when the Holy
Ghost shall have come upon you; and you shall be witnesses of
these things for me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in
Samaria, and even to the farthest parts of the earth.” And when he
had spoken these things, he was taken away from them as they
were looking at him, for a cloud received him out of their sight. And
while they looked earnestly towards heaven, as he went up, behold,
two men stood by them in white apparel, and said, “Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who
is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as
you have seen him go into heaven.” They now understood that they
had parted from their loved Master forever, in earthly form; yet the
consolations afforded by this last promise of the attendant spirits,
were neither few nor small. To bring about that bright return, in
whose glories they were to share, was the great task to which they
devoted their lives; and they went back to Jerusalem, sorrowful
indeed for the removal of their great guide and friend, but not
sorrowing as those who have no hope.
To Bethany.――This place was on the Mount of Olives, probably near its summit, and
perhaps within sight of Jerusalem. See notes on pp. 90 and 95.
Here ceased their course of instruction under their Divine Master;

laying down their character as Disciples, they now took up the higher
dignity, responsibility and labors of Apostles. Here too ceases the
record of “Peter’s discipleship;”――no longer a learner and
follower of any one on earth, he is exalted to the new duties and
dangers of the Apostleship, of which the still more interesting story
here begins; and he must henceforth bear the new character and
title of “Peter the teacher and leader.”
II. PETER’S APOSTLESHIP;
OR
PETER THE TEACHER AND LEADER.
the pentecost.
After the ascension, all the apostles seem to have removed their
families and business from Galilee, and to have made Jerusalem
their permanent abode. From this time no more mention is made of
any part of Galilee as the home of Peter or his friends; and even the
lake, with its cities, so long hallowed by the presence and the deeds
of the son of man, was thenceforth entirely left to the low and vulgar
pursuits which the dwellers of that region had formerly followed upon
it, without disturbance from the preaching and the miracles of the
Nazarene. The apostles finding themselves in Jerusalem the object
of odious, or at best of contemptuous notice from the great body of
the citizens, being known as Galileans and as followers of the
crucified Jesus, therefore settled themselves in such a manner as
would best secure their comfortable and social subsistence. When
they came back to the city from Galilee, (having parted from their
Master on the Olive mount, about a mile off,) they went up into a
chamber in a private house, where all the eleven passed the whole
time, together with their wives, and the women who had followed
Jesus, and with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brethren. These
all continued with one accord in this place, with prayer and
supplication, at the same time no doubt comforting and instructing
one another in those things, of which a knowledge would be requisite
or convenient for the successful prosecution of their great enterprise,
on which they were soon to embark. In the course of these devout
and studious pursuits, the circumstances and number of those
enrolled by Christ in the apostolic band, became naturally a subject
of consideration and discussion, and they were particularly led to
notice the gap made among them, by the sad and disgraceful
defection of Judas Iscariot. This deficiency the Savior had not
thought of sufficient importance to need to be filled by a nomination
made by him, during the brief period of his stay among them after his
resurrection, when far more weighty matters called his attention. It
was their wish however, to complete their number as originally
constituted by their Master, and in reference to the immediate
execution of this pious and wise purpose, Peter, as their leader,
forcibly and eloquently addressed them, when not less than one
hundred and twenty were assembled. The details of his speech, and
the conclusion of the business, are deferred to the account of the
lives of those persons who were the subjects of the transaction. In
mentioning it now, it is only worth while to notice, that Peter here
stands most distinctly and decidedly forward, as the director of the
whole affair, and such was his weight in the management of a matter
so important, that his words seem to have had the force of law; for
without further discussion, commending the decision to God in
prayer, they adopted the action suggested by him, and filled the
vacancy with the person apparently designated by God. In the
faithful and steady confidence that they were soon to receive,
according to the promise of their risen Lord, some new and
remarkable gift from above, which was to be to them at once the seal
of their divine commission, and their most important equipment for
their new duties, the apostles waited in Jerusalem until the great
Jewish feast of the pentecost. This feast is so named from a Greek
word meaning “fiftieth,” because it always came on the fiftieth day
after the day of the passover feast. Jesus had finally disappeared
from his disciples about forty days after his resurrection,――that is
forty-two days after the great day of the passover, which will leave
just one week for the time which passed between the ascension and
the day of pentecost. These seven days the apostolic assembly had
passed in such pursuits as might form the best preparation for the
great event they were expecting. Assembled in their sacred
chamber, they occupied themselves in prayer and exhortation. At
length the great feast arrived, on which the Jews, according to the
special command of Moses, commemorated the day, on which of old
God gave the law to their fathers, on Mount Sinai, amid thunder and
lightning. On this festal occasion, great numbers of Jews who had
settled in different remote parts of the world, were in the habit of
coming back to their father-land, and their holy city, to renew their
devotion in the one great temple of their ancient faith, there to offer
up the sacrifices of gratitude to their fathers’ God, who had
prospered them even in strange lands among the heathen. The Jews
were then, as now, a wandering, colonizing people wherever they
went, yet remained perfectly distinct in manners, dress and religion,
never mixing in marriage with the people among whom they dwelt,
but every where bringing up a true Israelitish race, to worship the
God of Abraham with a pure religion, uncontaminated by the
idolatries around them. There was hardly any part of the world,
where Roman conquest had planted its golden eagles, to which
Jewish mercantile enterprise did not also push its adventurous way,
in the steady pursuit of gainful traffic. The three grand divisions of
the world swarmed with these faithful followers of the true law of
God, and from the remotest regions, each year, gathered a fresh
host of pilgrims, who came from afar, many for the first time, to
worship the God of their fathers in their fathers’ land. Amid this fast
gathering throng, the feeble band of the apostles, unknown and
unnoticed, were assembled in their usual place of meeting, and
employed in their usual devout occupations. Not merely the twelve,
but all the friends of Christ in Jerusalem, to the number of one
hundred and twenty, were here awaiting, in prayer, the long
promised Comforter from the Father. All of a sudden, the sound of a
mighty wind, rushing upon the building, roared around them, and
filled the apartments with its appalling noise, rousing them from the
religious quiet to which they had given themselves up. Nor were their
ears alone made sensible of the approach of some strange event. In
the midst of the gathering gloom which the wind-driven clouds
naturally spread over all, flashes of light were seen by them, and
lambent flames playing around, lighted at last upon them. At once
the anxious prayers with which they had awaited the coming of the
Comforter, were hushed: they needed no longer to urge the fulfilment
of their Master’s word; for in the awful rush of that mighty wind, they
recognized the voice they had so long expected, and in that solemn
sound, they knew the tone of the promised Spirit. The approach of
that feast-day must have raised their expectations of this promised
visitation to the highest pitch. They knew that this great national
festival was celebrated in commemoration of the giving of the old law
on Mount Sinai to their fathers, through Moses, and that no occasion
could be more appropriate or impressive for the full revelation of the
perfect law which the last restorer of Israel had come to teach and
proclaim. The ancient law had been given on Sinai, in storm and
thunder and fire; when therefore, they heard the roar of the mighty
wind about them, the firm conviction of the approach of their new
revelation must have possessed their minds at once. They saw too,
the dazzling flash of flame among them, and perceived, with awe,
strange masses of light, in the shape of tongues, settling with a
tremulous motion on the head of each of them. The tempest and the
fire were the symbols of God’s presence on Sinai of old, and from
the same signs joined with these new phenomena, they now learned
that the aid of God was thus given to equip them with the powers
and energies needful for their success in the wider publication of the
doctrine of Christ. With these tokens of a divine presence around
them, their feelings and thoughts were raised to the highest pitch of
joy and exultation; and being conscious of a new impulse working in
them, they were seized with a sacred glow of enthusiasm, so that
they gave utterance to these new emotions in words as new to them
as their sensations, and spoke in different languages, praising God
for this glorious fulfilment of his promise, as this holy influence
inspired them.
An upper room.――The location of this chamber has been the subject of a vast quantity
of learned discussion, a complete view of which would far exceed my limits. The great point
mooted has been, whether this place was in a private house or in the temple. The passage
in Luke xxiv. 53, where it is said that the apostles “were continually in the temple, praising
and blessing God,” has led many to suppose that the same writer, in this continuation of the
gospel story, must have had reference to some part of the temple, in speaking of the upper
room as the place of their abode. In the Acts ii. 46, also, he has made a similar remark,
which I can best explain when that part of the story is given. The learned Krebsius
(Observationes in Novvm Testamentvm e Flavio Iosepho, pp. 162‒164) has given a fine
argument, most elegantly elaborated with quotations from Josephus, in which he makes it
apparently quite certain from the grammatical construction, and from the correspondence of
terms with Josephus’s description of the temple, that this upper room must have been there.
It is true, that Josephus mentions particularly a division of the inner temple, on the upper
side of it, under the name of ὑπερῳον, (hyperoon,) which is the word used by Luke in this
passage, but Krebsius in attempting to prove this to be a place in which the disciples might
be constantly assembled, has made several errors in the plan of the later temple, which I
have not time to point out, since there are other proofs of the impossibility of their meeting
there, which will take up all the space I can bestow on the subject. Krebsius has furthermore
overlooked entirely the following part of the text in Acts i. 13, where it is said, that when they
returned to Jerusalem, “they went up into an upper room where they had been staying,” in
Greek, οὑ ησαν καταμενοντες, (hou esan katamenontes,) commonly translated “they abode.”
The true force of this use of the present participle with the verb of existence is repeated
action, as is frequently true of the imperfect of that verb in such combinations. Kuinoel justly
gives it this force,――“ubi commorari sive convenire solebant.” But the decisive proof
against the notion that this room was in the temple, is this. In specifying the persons there
assembled, it is said, (Acts i. 14,) that the disciples were assembled there with the women
of the company. Now it is most distinctly specified in all descriptions of the temple, that the
women were always limited to one particular division of the temple, called the “women’s
court.” Josephus is very particular in specifying this important fact in the arrangements of
the temple. (Jewish War, V. 5. 2.) “A place on this part of the temple specially devoted to the
religious use of the women, being entirely separated from the rest by a wall, it was
necessary that there should be another entrance to this. * * * There were on the other sides
of this place two gates, one on the north and one on the south, through which the court of
the women was entered; for women were not allowed to enter through any others.” (Also V.
5, 6.) “But women, even when pure, were not allowed to pass within the limit before
mentioned.” This makes it evident beyond all doubt, that women could never be allowed to
assemble with men in this upper chamber within the forbidden precincts, to which indeed it
was impossible for them to have access, entering the temple through two private doors, and
using only one court, which was cut off by an impenetrable wall, from all communication
with any other part of the sacred inclosure.
This seems to me an argument abundantly sufficient to upset all that has ever been said
in favor of the location of this upper apartment within the temple; and my only wonder is,
that so many learned critics should have perplexed themselves and others with various
notions about the matter, when this single fact is so perfectly conclusive.
The upper room, then, must have been in some private house, belonging to some
wealthy friend of Christ, who gladly received the apostles within his walls. Every Jewish
house had in its upper story a large room of this sort, which served as a dining-room, (Mark
xiv. 15: Luke xxii. 12,) a parlor, or an oratory for private or social worship. (See Bloomfield’s
Annotations, Acts i. 13.) Some have very foolishly supposed this to have been the house of
Simon the leper, (Matthew xxvi. 6,) but his house was in Bethany, and therefore by no
means answers the description of their entering it after their return to Jerusalem from
Bethany. Others, with more probability, the house of Nicodemus, the wealthy Pharisee; but
the most reasonable supposition, perhaps, is that of Beza, who concludes this to have been
the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, which we know to have been afterwards used
as a place of religious assembly. (Acts xii. 12.) Others have also, with some reason,
suggested that this was no doubt the same “upper room furnished,” in which Jesus had
eaten the last supper with his disciples. These two last suppositions are not inconsistent
with each other.
Tongues of fire.――This is a classic Hebrew expression for “a lambent flame,” and is the
same used by Isaiah, (v. 24,) where the Hebrew is ‫( לשון אש‬leshon esh,) “a tongue of
fire;”――commonly translated, simply “fire.” In that passage there seems to be a sort of
poetical reference to the tongue, as an organ used in devouring food, (“as the tongue of fire
devoureth the stubble,”) but there is abundant reason to believe that the expression was
originally deduced from the natural similitude of a rising flame to a tongue, being pointed
and flexible, as well as waving in its outlines, and playing about with a motion like that of
licking, whence the Latin expression of “a lambent flame,”――from lambo, “lick.” Wetstein
aptly observes, that a flame of fire, in the form of a divided tongue, was a sign of the gift of
tongues, corresponding to the Latin expression bilinguis, and the Greek διγλωσος,
(diglossos,) “two-tongued,” as applied to persons skilled in a plurality of languages. He also
with his usual classic richness, gives a splendid series of quotations illustrative of this idea
of a lambent flame denoting the presence of divine favor, or inspiration imparted to the
person about whom the symbol appeared. Bloomfield copies these quotations, and also
draws illustrations in point, from other sources.
My own opinion of the nature of this whole phenomenon is that of Michaelis,

Rosenmueller, Paulus and Kuinoel,――that a tremendous tempest actually descended at
the time, bringing down clouds highly charged with electricity, which was not discharged in
the usual mode, by thunder and lightning, but quietly streamed from the air to the earth, and
wherever it passed from the air upon any tolerable conductor, it made itself manifest in the
darkness occasioned by the thick clouds, in the form of those pencils of rays, with which
every one is familiar who has seen electrical experiments in a dark room; and which are
well described by the expression, “cloven tongues of fire.” The temple itself being covered
and spiked with gold, the best of all conductors, would quietly draw off a vast quantity of
electricity, which, passing through the building, would thus manifest itself on those within the
chambers of the temple, if we may suppose the apostles to have been there assembled.
These appearances are very common in peculiar electrical conditions of the air, and there
are many of my readers, no doubt, who have seen them. At sea, they are often seen at
night on the ends of the masts and yards, and are well known to sailors by the name which
the Portuguese give them, “corpos santos,”――“holy bodies,”――connecting them with
some popish superstitions. A reference to the large quotations given by Wetstein and
Bloomfield, will show that this display at the pentecost is not the only occasion on which
these electric phenomena were connected with spiritual mysteries. No one would have the
slightest hesitation in explaining these passages in other credible historians, by this physical
view; and I know no rule in logic or common sense,――no religious doctrine or theological
principle, which compels me to explain two precisely similar phenomena of this character, in
two totally different ways, because one of them is found in a heathen history, and the other
in a sacred and inspired record. The vehicle thus chosen was not unworthy of making the
peculiar manifestation of the presence of God, and of the outpouring of his spirit;――nor
was it an unprecedented mode of his display. The awful thunder which shook old Sinai, and
the lightnings which dazzled the eyes of the amazed Israelites, were real thunder and
lightning, nor will an honest and reverent interpretation of the sacred text allow us to
pronounce them acoustical and optical delusions. If they were real thunder and lightning,
they were electrical discharges, and cannot be conceived of in any other way. Why should
we hesitate at the notion that He who “holds the winds in the hollow of his hand,” and
“makes a way for the lightning of thunder,” should use these same awful instruments as the
symbols of his presence, to strike awe into the hearts of men, making the physical the token
of the moral power; and accomplishing the deep prophetic meaning of the solemn words of
the Psalmist, “He walks upon the wings of the wind――he makes the winds his
messengers――the lightnings his ministers.” For this is the just translation of Psalm civ. 4.
See Lowth, Clarke, Whitby, Calmet, Thomson, &c. But Jaspis, Bloomfield, Stuart, &c.,
support the common version.
Were all assembled, &c.――It has been questioned whether this term, “all,” refers to the
one hundred and twenty, or merely to the apostles, who are the persons mentioned in the
preceding verse, (Acts i. 26, ii. 1,) and to whom it might be grammatically limited. There is
nothing to hinder the supposition that all the brethren were present, and Chrysostom,
Jerome, Augustine and other ancient fathers, confirm this view. The place in which they
met, need not, of course, be the same where the events of the preceding chapter occurred,
but was very likely some one of the thirty apartments, (οικοι, oikoi, Josephus, Antiquities,
viii. 3. 2,) which surrounded the inner court of the temple, where the apostles might very
properly assemble at the third hour, which was the hour of morning prayer, and which is
shown in verse 15, to have been the time of this occurrence. Besides, it is hard to conceive
of this vast concourse of persons (verse 41,) as occurring in any other place than the
temple, in whose vast and thronged courts it might easily happen, for Josephus says “that
the apartments around the courts opened into each other,” ησαν δια αλληλων, “and there
were entrances to them on both sides, from the gate of the temple,” thus affording a ready
access on any sudden noise attracting attention towards them.
Foreign Jews staying in Jerusalem.――The phrase “dwelling,” (Acts ii. 5,) in the Greek
κατοικουντες, (katoikountes,) does not necessarily imply a fixed residence, as Wolf and
others try to make it appear, but is used in the LXX. in the sense of temporary residence;
and seems here to be applied to foreign Jews, who chose to remain there, from the
passover to the pentecost, but whose home was not in Jerusalem; for the context speaks of
them as dwellers in Mesopotamia, &c. (verse 9.) A distinction is also made between two
sorts of Jews among those who had come from Rome,――the Jews by birth and the
proselytes, (verse 10,) showing that the Mosaic faith was flourishing, and making converts
from the Gentiles there.
peter’s sermon.
This wonderful event took place in the chamber of the temple,

which they had used as a place of worship ever since their Lord’s
departure. As the whole temple was now constantly thronged with
worshipers, who were making their offerings on this great feast day,
this room in which the followers of Jesus were devoutly employed,
must, as well as all the others, have been visited by new comers: for
the mere prior occupation of the room by the disciples, could not
entitle them to exclude from a public place of that kind any person
who might choose to enter. The multitude of devotees who filled all
parts of the temple, soon heard of what was going on in this
apartment, and came together to see and hear for themselves.
When the inquiring crowds reached the spot, they found the
followers of Christ breaking out in loud expressions of praise to God,
and of exhortation, each in such a language as best suited his
powers of expression, not confining themselves to the Hebrew,
which in all places of public worship, and especially in Jerusalem on
the great festivals, was the only language of devotion. Among the
crowds that thronged to the place of this strange occurrence, were
Jews from many distant regions, whose language or dialects were as
widely various as the national names which they bore. Parthians,
and Medes, and Elamites,――those who dwelt in Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and
Africa, and some even from distant Rome, were all among those
who heard the spirit-moving language of the disciples. Some of the
more scrupulous among these foreign Jews, were probably,
notwithstanding their amazement, somewhat offended at this
profanation of worship, in the public use of these heathen languages
for the purposes of devotion; and with a mixture of wonder and
displeasure they asked, “Are not all these men who are talking in
these various languages, Galileans? How then are they able to show
such an immense diversity of expression, so that all of us, even
those from the most distant countries, hear them in our various
languages, setting forth the praises of God?” And they were all
surprised and perplexed, and said one to another, “What will this
come to?” But to some who were present, the whole proceeding was
so little impressive, and had so little appearance of anything
miraculous, that they were moved only to expressions of contempt,
and said, in a tone of ridicule, “These men are drunk on sweet wine.”
This seems to show that to them there was no conclusive evidence
of Divine agency in this speaking in various languages; and they, no
doubt, supposed that among these Galileans were foreigners also
from many other parts of the world, who, mingling with Christ’s
disciples, had joined in their devotions, and caught their enthusiasm.
Seeing this assembly thus made up, now occupied in speaking
violently and confusedly in these various languages, they at once
concluded that they were under the influence of some artificial
exhilarant, and supposed that during this great festal occasion they
had been betrayed into some unseasonable jollity, and were now
under the excitement of hard drinking. Such as took this cool view of
the matter, therefore, immediately explained the whole by charging
the excited speakers with drunkenness. But Peter, on hearing this
scandalous charge, rose up, as the leader and defender of these
objects of public notice, and repelled the contemptuous suggestion
that he and his companions had been abusing the occasion of
rational religious enjoyment, to the purposes of intemperate and
riotous merriment. Calling on all present for their attention, both
foreign Jews and those settled in Jerusalem, he told them that the
violent emotions which had excited their surprise could not be
caused by wine, as it was then but nine o’clock in the morning, and
as they well knew, it was contrary to all common habits of life to
suppose that before that early hour, these men could have been
exposed to any such temptation. They knew that the universal
fashion of the devout Jews was to take no food whatever on the
great days of public worship, until after their return from morning
prayers in the temple. How then could these men, thus devoutly
occupied since rising, have found opportunity to indulge in
intoxicating drinks?
Peter then proceeded to refer them for a more just explanation of

this strange occurrence, to the long recorded testimonies of the
ancient prophets, which most distinctly announced such powerful
displays of religious zeal and knowledge, as about to happen in
those later days, of which the present moment seemed the
beginning. He quoted to them a passage from Joel, which pointedly
set forth these and many other wonders with the distinctness of
reality, and showed them how all these striking words were
connected with the fate of that Jesus whom they had so lately
sacrificed. He now, for the first time, publicly declared to them, that
this Jesus, whom they had vainly subjected to a disgraceful death,
had by the power of God been raised from the grave to a glorious
and immortal life. Of this fact he assured them that all the disciples
were the witnesses, having seen him with their own eyes after his
return to life. He now showed them in what manner the resurrection
of Jesus might be explained and illustrated by the words of David,
and how the psalm itself might be made to appear in a new light, by
interpreting it in accordance with these recent events. He concluded
this high-toned and forcible appeal to scripture and to fact, by calling
them imperatively to learn and believe. “Let all the house of Israel
know, then, that God has made this Jesus, whom you have crucified,
both Lord and Christ.” This declaration, thus solemnly made and
powerfully supported, in connection with the surprising
circumstances which had just occurred, had a most striking and
convincing effect on the hearers, and almost the whole multitude
giving way to their feelings of awe and compunction, being stung
with the remembrance of the share they had had in the murder of
Jesus, cried out, as with one voice, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
Peter’s instant reply was, “Change your mind, and be each one of
you baptized to the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your
sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” That same
divine influence, whose in-workings had just been so wonderfully
displayed before their eyes, was now promised to them, as the seal
of Christ’s acceptance of the offer of themselves in the preliminary
sign of baptism. To them and to their children, upon whom, fifty days
before, they had solemnly invoked the curse of the murdered
Redeemer’s blood, was this benignant promise of pardoning love
now made; and not only to them, but to all, however far off in place
or in feeling, whom their common Lord and God should call to him.
Inspired with the glorious prospect of success now opening to him,
and moved to new earnestness by their devout and alarmed
attention, Peter zealously went on, and spoke to them many other
words, of which the sacred historian has given us only the brief but
powerful concluding exhortation,――“Suffer yourselves to be saved
from this perverse generation,”――from those who had involved
themselves and their race in the evils resulting to them from their
wicked rejection of the truth offered by Jesus. The whole Jewish
nation stood at that time charged with the guilt of rejecting the
Messiah; nor could any individual be cleared from his share of
responsibility for the crime, except by coming out and distinctly
professing his faith in Christ.
the church’s increase.
The success which followed Peter’s first effort in preaching the

gospel of his murdered and risen Lord, was most cheering. Those
who heard him on this occasion, gladly receiving his words, were
baptized, and on that same day converts to the number of three
thousand were added to the disciples. How must these glorious
results, and all the events of the day, have lifted up the hearts of the
apostles, and moved them to new and still bolder efforts in their
great cause! They now knew and felt the true force of their Master’s
promise, that they should “be indued with power from on high;” for
what less than such power could in one day have wrought such a
change in the hearts of the haughty Jews, as to make them
submissive hearers of the followers of the lately crucified Nazarene,
and bring over such immense numbers of converts to the new faith,
as to swell the small and feeble band of disciples to more than
twenty times its former size? Nor did the impression made on this
multitude prove to be a mere transient excitement; for we are
assured that “they held steadily to the doctrine taught by the
apostles, and kept company with them in all their daily religious
duties and social enjoyments.” So permanent and complete was this
change, as to cause universal astonishment among those who had
not been made the subjects of it; and the number of those who heard
the amazing story, must have been so much the greater at that time,
as there was then at Jerusalem so large an assemblage of Jews
from almost every part of the civilized world. On this account, it
seems to have been most wisely ordered that this first public
preaching of the Christian faith, and this great manifestation of its
power over the hearts of men, should take place on this festal
occasion, when its influence might at once more widely and quickly
spread than by any other human means. The foreign Jews then at
Jerusalem, being witnesses of these wonderful things, would not fail,
on their return home, to give the whole affair a prominent place in
their account of their pilgrimage, when they recounted their various
adventures and observations to their inquiring friends. Among these
visitors, too, were probably some who were themselves on this
occasion converted to the new faith, and each one of these would be
a sort of missionary, preaching Christ crucified to his countrymen in
his distant home, and telling them of a way to God, which their
fathers had not known. The many miracles wrought by the apostles,
as signs of their authority, served to swell the fame of the Christian
cause, and added new incidents to the fast-traveling and far-
spreading story, which, wherever it went, prepared the people to
hear the apostles with interest and respect, when, in obedience to
their Lord’s last charge, they should go forth to distant lands,
preaching the gospel.
peter’s prominence.
This vast addition to the assembly of the disciples at Jerusalem,

made it necessary for the apostles to complete some farther
arrangements, to suit their enlarged circumstances; and at this
period the first church of Christ in the world seems to have so far
perfected its organization as to answer very nearly to the modern
idea of a permanent religious community. The church of Jerusalem
was an individual worshiping assembly, that at this time met daily for
prayer and exhortation, with twelve ministers who officiated as
occasion needed, without any order of service, as far as we know,
except such as depended on their individual weight of character,
their natural abilities or their knowledge of the doctrines of their Lord.
Among these, the three most favored by Christ’s private instructions
would have a natural pre-eminence, and above all, he who had been
especially named as the rock on which the church should be built,
and as the keeper of the keys of the kingdom, and had been
solemnly and repeatedly commissioned as the pastor and leader of
the flock, would now maintain an undisputed pre-eminence, unless
he should by some actual misconduct prove himself unworthy of the
rank. Such a pre-eminence it is unquestionable that Peter always did
maintain among the apostles; and so decidedly too, that on every
occasion when any thing was to be said or done by them as a body,
Peter invariably stands out alone, as the undisputed representative
and head of the whole community. Indeed the whole history of the
apostles, after the ascension, gives but a single instance in which
the words of any one of the twelve besides Peter are recorded, or
where any one of them, except in that single case, is named as
having said any thing whatever. On every occasion of this sort, the
matters referred to were no more the concern of Peter than of any
other of the twelve, yet they all seem to have been perfectly satisfied
with quietly giving up the expression of their views to him. One
instance, indeed, occurs, in which some persons attempted to blame
his conduct when on a private mission, but even then his explanation
of his behavior hushed all complaint. Often, when he was publicly
engaged in the company of John, the most beloved of Jesus, and his
faithful witness, it would seem that if there was any assumption by
Peter of more than due importance, this distinguished son of
Zebedee or his equally honored brother would have taken such a
share in speaking and doing, as would have secured them an equal
prominence. But no such low jealousies ever appear to have arisen
among the apostles; not one seems to have had a thought about
making himself an object of public notice, but their common and
unanimous care was to advance their great Master’s cause, without
reference to individual distinctions. Peter’s natural force of character
and high place in his Master’s confidence, justified the ascendency
which he on all public occasions claimed as his indisputable right, in
which the rest acquiesced without a murmur.
the christian community.
In the constitution of the first church of Christ, there seems to have

been no other noticeable peculiarity, than the number of its ministers,
and even this in reality amounted to nothing; for the decided pre-
eminence and superior qualifications of Peter were such as, in effect,
to make him the sole pastor and preacher for a long time, while the
other apostles do not seem to have performed any duty much higher
than that of mere assistants to him, or exhorters, and perhaps
teachers. Still, not a day could pass when every one of them would
not be required to labor in some way for the gospel; and indeed the
sacred historian uniformly speaks of them in the plural number, as
laboring together and alike in the common cause. Thus they went on
quietly and humbly laboring, with a pure zeal which was as
indifferent to fame and earthly honor, as to the acquisition or
preservation of earthly wealth. They are said to have held all things
common, which is to be understood, however, not as implying
literally that the rich renounced all individual right to what they
owned, but that they stood ready to provide for the needy to the full
extent of their property, and in that sense, all these pecuniary
resources were made as common as if they were formally thrown
into one public stock, out of which every man drew as suited his own
needs. To an ordinary reader, this passage, taken by itself, might
seem to convey fully the latter meaning; but a reference to other
passages, and to the whole history of the primitive Christians, shows
clearly, that a real and literal community of goods was totally
unknown to them, but that in the bold and free language of the age
and country, they are said to have “had all things in common,” just as
among us, a man may say to his friend, “My house is
yours;――consider every thing I have as your own property;” and yet
no one would ever construe this into a surrender of his individual
rights of possession. So the wealthy converts to the Christian faith
sold their estates and goods, as occasion required, for the sake of
having ready money to relieve the wants of those who had no means
of support. Thus provided for, the apostles steadily pursued their
great work, passing the greater part of every day in the temple; but
taking their food at home, they ate what was so freely and
generously provided, with thankful and unanxious hearts, praising
God and having favor with all the people. In these happy and useful
employments they continued, every day finding new sources of
enjoyment and new encouragement, in the accession of redeemed
ones to their blessed community.
Taking their food at home.――This is my interpretation of κλωντες κατ’ οἶκον αρτον,

(klontes kat’ oikon arton.) Acts ii. 46, commonly translated “breaking bread from house to
house,” a version which is still supported by many names of high authority; but the
attendant circumstances here seem to justify this variation from them. A reference to the
passage will show that the historian is speaking of their regular unanimous attendance in
the temple, and says, “they attended every day with one accord in the temple,” that is,
during the regular hours of daily worship, but as they would not suffer untimely devotion to
Another random document with
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of view of the statistical bureaucrat, cancer is increasing. That is to
say, an increasing number of deaths, and an increasing proportion of
deaths, are every year presented to him, both absolutely and in
relation to the population. And so many more perforated cards are in
consequence manipulated by his counting machine.
Can it be said that, for any one reader of these pages, the
chances of death from cancer are year by year increasing, as are the
chances of being run over in the London streets? Who can say?
But this is true. We must all die. We are, for the most part, anxious
to postpone the day of death, and many of us dread, more than
aught else, a death from cancer.
Effort in the path of right living—if steadily pursued—and the
intelligent utilization of what Science and Art and Experience have to
teach, will undoubtedly make for healthier and longer lived
communities, and will lessen, for each individual, the probability of
dying otherwise than in the fashion thought of by the doctor when he
ascribes death to “old age”. The problem we are considering
becomes indeed swallowed up by a still greater one; but, those who
profit by what Mr Wright has had to say about Cancer, will profit in
respect of this greater problem as well. Therein, so it seems, lies its
greatest value.
F. G. CROOKSHANK
London, 1925
THE CONQUEST OF CANCER
The cure of cancer is now ceasing to become a purely medical
problem, to be solved by biologists, pathologists and surgeons, and
is becoming a problem in psychology, and education, to be solved by
publicists, schoolmasters, and perhaps, when enough people are
alive to the facts of the situation, by legislators and statesmen.
This may sound a bold thing to say, but I hope to be able to bring
forward evidence proving that it is at present possible to cure
seventy-five per cent. of cancer cases with a mortality of under five
per cent.
Possibly the response to this essay will be that of one of the most
enlightened persons of my acquaintance who, on seeing my title,
said, “Of course this is perfectly absurd”, but it was a favourite saying
of Dr Maguire, a great American surgeon of the nineteenth century,
that the most useful thing one man can do for his fellows is to see a
thing clearly, and to say it plainly.
Here is a plain statement, susceptible of the fullest proof. Out of
every hundred people in our community, ten will in all probability die
of cancer; and, of those ten, seven or eight could be cured, or their
disease prevented with the present methods at our disposal. All that
is required is an intelligent facing of the facts concerning this
disease, and efficient medical attention.
The average annual deaths during the last eleven years in the
United Kingdom were 466,000,—nearly half a million people. Of
these, 43,000 were due to cancer; 19,000 males and 24,000
females. Moreover, although taken altogether ten per cent. of the
population die of cancer, a greater proportion of adults so die. I say
again that a large proportion of these cases is either preventable or
curable.
The Executive Committee of the British Empire Cancer Campaign
have recently published a statement based on the last census. They
say that, during the year 1921, in Great Britain, of persons over 30
years of age, one out of every seven died of cancer.
These figures make it plain that the question is not merely one of
interest to doctors and scientists; it is of concern to every one of us,
and to one person in every ten it has direct and very personal
interest.
Surgery and medicine have very little further to advance along
technical lines, so far as the type of case we see at present is
concerned. It is nearly impossible to make operations more
extensive and thorough than they are at present; and it is unlikely
that the operative mortality in the average good risk will fall much
lower than its present very small figure. Other methods of curing
cancer do not at the moment show promise of producing anything so
good as the present surgical results. We have therefore to resort to
an educational campaign for its victims before we can get much
further on.
This brings me to the first point to be brought home before any
more is said—that early cancer and late cancer are, so far as results
and cures are concerned, two entirely different diseases. A well-
known English authority, speaking of cancer of the tongue, says: “An
early superficial cancer on the free part of the tongue should be, and
is, curable in practically all cases. The general conviction of the
incurability of cancer is founded on the results of operation on the
average fairly advanced case and, until this conviction is shaken, I
fear the public will remain relatively indifferent and pessimistic as to
the advantages of early treatment. Every surgeon of any experience
is aware that, as regards its accessibility to treatment, early cancer is
a totally different disease from even moderately advanced cancer,
but I am very doubtful as to whether we shall be able to enforce the
fact by direct statement so long as the treatment of advanced cases
furnishes the public with so many terrible object lessons in the
apparent intractability of the disease.”
The problem we have before us, then, is that of changing the
whole attitude, not only of the physician, but of the patient, to cancer.
Here is an example of the present point of view:—I have frequently
heard it said that such and such a patient has a lump, or some
disquieting symptom or other, but she won’t go to the doctor as she
is afraid he will say it is cancer. What we have to do is to strip this
disease of its fear-complex and bring all the facts about it into the
open. We have to change the attitude of the patient, and often,
unfortunately, of his doctor, from one of “wait and see” to one of “look
and see.” Then, and only then, shall we be on the way to curing
cancer.
The results of the present-day and popular point of view are
appalling. Somewhere about half the cases of cancer are far too
advanced for us to think about curing them at the time the patients
appear. Of the remaining half, approximately two-thirds have about a
thirty per cent. chance of cure, and the remainder about a sixty per
cent. chance. These figures are rough estimates based on
impressions formed in hospital out-patient work, but they will not be
found far wrong. The heart-breaking part of it is that it is all the result
of fear, carelessness and crooked thinking, which could be avoided
in a large percentage of the cases.
Yet there are signs that we are entering on a new phase, and that
a realisation of the importance of early diagnosis is slowly
permeating through the medical profession. In America we see an
increasing insistence on the use of detailed and specialised
laboratory methods for exact diagnosis; and in Great Britain there is
in existence, at St. Andrew’s University, a complete medical unit,
under the supervision of Sir James Mackenzie, for the investigation
of the early symptoms of disease. The establishment of this institute
is, I think, one of the most important advances that medicine has
made in the last twenty-five years, for it is a milestone on the road to
progress, a concrete and tangible expression of a changed point of
view.
Let us for the moment leave generalities and give some few
minutes to more detailed consideration of the disease; first in outline,
and then in respect of some particular cases.
Cancer is a degeneration. It most often occurs at that period of life
when our biological work is done, and, as far as Nature is
concerned, we are of no use. From her point of view we are on this
planet to reproduce our kind and, when we are past doing that, our
tissues begin to lose their firm hold on their appointed form, and
stray from their former habit of exactly reproducing their kind when
attempting to recover from any kind of injury. Cancer is commonest
in those organs which have soonest finished their work—the
reproductive organs of women; and, after these, it appears most
often in that organ so much more abused than any other—the
stomach.
The greatest number of cases appears at or after fifty, and
therefore at that age it behoves us, not to wait and see whether we
shall get it or not, but to look and see that we have not got it, for of
people who survive till the age of fifty, a great many more than ten
per cent. die of cancer.
From the biological point of view cancer presents another
interesting feature. It used to be generally stated by biologists that
acquired characteristics cannot be transmitted. In cancer we see a
cell taking on foreign characteristics in response to some
environmental stimulus and transmitting these to its offspring until
the organism from which it sprang is destroyed.
To sum up, the tissues from which cancer grows, in their normal
process of repair tend to reproduce themselves more or less exactly,
or if the injury is too gross, they are replaced by scar tissue; but
when we reach the age at which their biological work is done, there
is a tendency to atypical reproduction, in which an atypical cell
continues to reproduce itself atypically and grows at the expense of
the organism, eating into or eroding it as it enlarges, till it finally kills
the host on which it preys.
This will serve as a general definition, but, if we wish to be a little
more concrete, we must plunge for a while into the realms of
pathology, in order to get a clearer idea of what cancer means.
Our body is made up of three layers of tissues; each of these has
its separate function, and, within small limits, its own way of reacting
to long continued injury. Early in our prenatal development, these
three layers can be distinguished, and each of these later produces
its own type of tissue, and under appropriate conditions, its own type
of malignant tumour. From the outer and inner layers develop the
cells which actually touch the outside world, that is to say, which
cover the exterior of our body and provide our inner lining, or
mucous membranes. From the inner layer is developed glands which
are, so to speak, ingrowths from this layer, and it is the tumours
arising from this latter tissue layer which mostly concern us now, and
which are the cause of so much human suffering.
These Carcinomata, as they are called, all have something in
common, alike from the point of view of their recognition, pathology
and onset. They begin in some tissue which has previously been the
seat of disease, usually some chronic inflammatory process which
has been present for years, and which may have healed up and
broken down many times. When this occurs on open surfaces, such
as the tongue, intestinal mucous membrane, or lip, we can watch the
gradual transformation of the disease from a simple chronic
inflammatory process to that of a malignant growth.
Let us take, for instance, the case of cancer of the lip. We see an
old man who for years has been smoking a clay pipe. The stem of
the pipe gets shorter as the years go by, and consequently, as he
smokes it, hotter and hotter. One day he notices that his lip is
cracked, the crack being just on that part with which he habitually
holds his pipe. If we were to look at this under the microscope we
should just see that the mucous membrane was broken at this point.
Perhaps he stops smoking for a day or two till his lip has healed, and
then continues to smoke again. Soon, from force of habit, the pipe
returns to its old comfortable spot; and again the lip cracks. This time
it is not so painful, and takes longer to heal. This cracked lip may be
present for years, and if, after some time, we were to look at it again
under the microscope, we should see a very different kind of thing.
All round the crack would be congregated thousands of white blood
cells, trying vainly to assist the sore to heal, but, as well as this, we
should notice that, in their efforts to bridge the gap of broken mucous
membrane, the delicate epithelial cells which line our lips had
increased in number and thickness. We might also see that they had
a tendency to grow down to the deeper layers of the lip.
If we were to persuade our friend to give up his clay pipe and
indulge in some other form of smoking, or even to have a few teeth
extracted so that his pipe was more comfortable in some other
position, the small ulcer would, given time and a little attention, heal
up quite satisfactorily. But, with all the perversity of human nature, he
will not; he only has a small sore: it doesn’t hurt him, or anyone else,
so why should he worry?
We pass on another few years, and our friend reappears. This
time his sore has a more permanent appearance about it. It is hard,
and somehow looks as if it goes deep, and has a tendency to bleed.
We look at it and tell him that he ought to let us cut out that small
sore, but as a rule he won’t allow this procedure; he wants medicine
to take for it, an ointment to put on it. If we were again to have a
microscopical section at our disposal we should see a very different
state of things. Those epithelial cells which before were just
thickened, and a little angry looking, have at last wakened up and
begun to grow. They have branched out and grown deeper into the
lip; there is nothing to check them since they have thrown aside all
the restraints imposed by the necessity of keeping to their original
form, and have, so to speak, got out of the control of the usual
mechanisms which the body possesses for keeping cells in their
proper place. The only thing we can do for the patient is either to find
some means to kill them—an end which has not yet been achieved,
as what will kill them will also kill the patient—or to cut away the
tissue in which they have grown, leaving a wide margin around the
farthest palpable edge of the ulcer. If this is done, the patient can be
assured of a permanent cure. But if he will not believe you, as he
often will not, possibly because you are not willing to stake your
reputation on the ulcer being malignant, or the certainty of its cure by
surgery, he will go away for another year or so. One day he appears
again because his ulcer has been showing a tendency to bleed and
has got a bit bigger lately; also he has noticed, while shaving, a
small hard lump in his neck which he feels as the razor goes over it.
He still has no pain and no discomfort whatever. We look at this and
tell him that he has to undergo an operation, both on his lip and on
his neck, and that he has got cancer. We remove the ulcer and every
gland that we can find in a large area around, but we can only
assure him that he has a one in five or three chance of a permanent
cure whereas, if he had taken our previous advice, we could have
promised him a permanent cure in between ninety and one hundred
per cent. of chances, according to the age of the disease.
If we now use our microscope, we see that the undisciplined
epithelial cells have penetrated the lymphatic capillaries which are
present in all our tissues, and have followed them until they reach
their destination, the nearest glands. What will happen next depends
on time. The growth may spread to more glands, or even outside the
glands, and the only course we have open to us is to remove the
primary growth, again with a wide margin, irrespective of what
disfigurement may result, together with its corresponding lymphatic
glands, trusting to radium or X-rays to kill any stray cells that may be
set free or missed during the operation. The chances of cure simply
depend on whether it is possible to remove the disease completely
or not.
The figures I have given are taken from a recent analysis of more
than five hundred cases of cancer of the lip carefully followed up. Of
cases in which there were no glands involved, ninety-one per cent.
were cured: of those with glands only eighteen per cent. were cured.
Now here is the point I want to emphasize. The average duration of
all these cases was two and a half years before operation. It is
impossible to devise any more radical operation, with a much lower
death-rate than we at present obtain, and there is no other method
which as yet produces better results than I have just quoted, but it is
possible to do away with that two and a half years of waiting and
medicine. There is no reason for it but ignorance, neglect, stupidity,
self-deception and fear.
The example which I have just quoted is not an unusual one, nor,
as I hope to show you later on, do the figures materially differ for
cancer arising in other parts of the body. Cancer of the lip merely
happens to be a convenient, and easily understood, peg upon which
to hang my text.
Cancer is practically always preceded by chronic irritation of some
kind or other. There may be, and in fact are, other factors which
enter into the problem, but there can be no doubt that in nearly all
cases there is what may be called a precancerous stage, which, if
adequately dealt with, will often prevent cancer appearing at all. It is
moreover a longstanding chronic condition which, as a rule, gives
rise to very little inconvenience on the part of the patient.
After this precancerous stage there appears what may be called
early cancer, often indistinguishable to the naked eye from the
original precancerous lesion, but giving rise to great suspicion in the
eyes of the initiated on account of its hardness, and tendency to be
fixed, and its resistance to treatment. Cancer in this stage can be
cured, with results which will compare favourably with the cure of
any other known disease (i.e., in about ninety per cent. of all cases)
its cure simply depending on early diagnosis. This is a fact neither
known nor appreciated by the general public, and until it is known by
everybody, and these early stages are radically dealt with, we shall
still be spending our time and money looking for new and miraculous
cures for a condition which, in its very nature, is unlikely to be
susceptible to any method of cure when its late stages are reached.
The third stage is that in which the neighbouring lymph glands are
involved. In this stage about thirty per cent. are incurable, but these
figures are not of much help or comfort to any particular sufferer as
they depend on the degree of involvement and the rapidity of growth.
There is, in the vast majority of cases, no reason why it should ever
reach this stage other than those causes which are within the control
of the patient and his doctor.
Lastly we get to a stage in which the disease is frankly inoperable,
and generally speaking, only capable of relief by one palliative
measure or other. About forty to fifty per cent. of all cases which
reach the surgeon have already arrived at this stage, and it is to this
fact that the generally hopeless attitude of everybody is to be
attributed. It is only when this stage is reached that the patient has
pain and symptoms which “wake him up,” and that he realises the
calamity which has befallen him.
The early signs of cancer may now be summed up as those of a
lesion of some kind, extending over a number of years, giving rise to
very little trouble or inconvenience, and followed by a small hard
lump or ulcer. If the latter is present, it is often characterised by
bleeding. Again, practically no symptoms. To find it we must look and
see; often an operation involving practically no suffering and a very
small mortality is necessary. But the penalties of failure to do this at
the proper time are that ten per cent. of the population die of cancer.
There are certain popular misconceptions about cancer which
require correction. The first is that cancer is necessarily painful. This
is responsible for much of the late diagnosis, operative mortality and
the bad results. Only late cancer, and it would not be far wrong to
say only incurable cancer, gives rise to pain. If only pain were an
early sign of cancer the whole aspect of the cancer problem would
be changed.
Another very widespread delusion productive of great harm is that
cancer is constantly associated with wasting, and makes rapid
progress. These two symptoms are constantly associated with the
disease in its latest stages but are not seen at all in early cases.
One frequently hears people say that cancer is contagious, and
also that it is hereditary. These two popular conceptions probably
have the same basis. As we have seen, cancer is a very common
disease, and it would be strange indeed if, putting all question of
relationship on one side, we were not to see it quite commonly
occurring in one or more members of the same family, and if
occasionally we did not find a house in which each successive
occupant for some years had cancer. I will leave it to the
mathematicians to work out the probability of cancer occurring more
than once in any given family. The necessary figures are easily
obtained from the Registrar-General’s office. As far as I know, there
is nothing truly in the nature of what may be called evidence in
support of either of these notions.
Time after time people have described parasites of some kind as
associated with cancer, but none of them has yet been made to
answer to any of the tests necessary to establish anything more than
a casual correlation. It may turn out to be that the causal agent in
cancer formation is a parasite either visible under the microscope, or,
what is more likely, belonging to the group of ultravisible, or filter-
passing, organisms; but even if this be so, there are two other
factors of immense importance, found so constantly associated with
the disease, that their significance cannot be underestimated by
anyone whose outlook is any wider than that of the mere purveyor of
prescriptions.
These two factors may be considered in a little more detail, as
they are of importance with regard to the question of prevention.
They are (1) the presence of an acid environment, and (2) what, for
want of a better term, may be called chronic irritation. Whatever the
prime cause may turn out to be, these can never be left out of
account in any consideration of aetiology, and even if some specific
cause is found, the discovery will not shake the validity of my thesis.
For two thousand years people have speculated about the origin
of cancer. Galen held a theory somewhat analogous to the present
Chinese doctrine of the yin and the yang; he taught, in essence, that
some kind of “ch’i” had got at loggerheads with its fellow gases, and
that the result was a general disturbance of bodily functions.
Paracelsus thought that the salt balance of the body was upset, and
textbooks still sometimes put this into modern medical terminology,
saying that the balance of power between different types of cells is
disturbed. This may or may not describe what happens, but it is a
long way from explaining it.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cancer was often
referred to as an “act of God” in punishment for sin. For instance,
cancer of the tongue was said to afflict those who spoke against the
Church, a view that the Church, not always strictly scientific in
interpretation of phenomena, did not discourage.
Here is a translation which Sir D’Arcy Power has made from Paul
de Sorbant, a German physician writing in 1672, in his Universa
Medicina. “We saw”; he says, “an ulcer of the tongue degenerating
into cancer in the noble baron Vertemali, which caused such a
haemorrhage from destruction of the sublingual arteries and veins
that the patient was suffocated. He recognised with great penitence
that the cause of this cancer was a divine punishment because he
had often abused the clergy.” Benetus, about the same time, in his
book called Medicinae Septentriniolanus Collatitia, describes a case
of what he calls “Tumor Linguae Miraculosa.” Here is a translation of
part of it. “There was lately a certain baron who had a very
poisonous tongue. He not only directed his jibes against all and
sundry, but he kept his most venemous shafts for the clergy and
those who devoted themselves to God’s service. He was caught at
last in the very act, by a holy brother of good repute as he was
pealing this cursed bell, who said to him: ‘Your foul tongue has
overlong deserved that punishment from an offended God which it
will shortly receive.’ The Baron went off undismayed, but a few days
afterwards a small swelling began to grow on the side of his tongue.
Little by little it increased in size until it became an inoperable
cancer, and at length the tongue having become incurved, twisted
and drawn back to his throat, miserably afflicted, but penitent and
confessed, he was summoned before the Great Judge who calls his
servants to a most strict account.”
This may all seem very far away and out of contact with our
present-day thought, but only two years ago a dear old lady sent to
the Cancer Hospital Research Department two pages of closely
written typescript, the gist of which was that she was withdrawing her
usual annual subscription, as, after giving the matter a great deal of
thought, she had come to the conclusion that cancer was caused by
the consumption of alcohol. So she proposed to forward her usual
subscription to the local Temperance Society which really was
striking at the root of the problem! The Secretary wrote and pointed
out that cancer is very common in cats who are strict prohibitionists!
The old lady did not reply!
Let us come back again from theory to fact, and consider some of
the factors which we know constantly to be associated with cancer,
and which we are justified in regarding as being, in many cases,
more than predisposing causes.
The most important of these is chronic irritation. We find that
almost every cancer is preceded for a longer or shorter period by
what may be called a precancerous condition. The more our
knowledge increases the more we are finding out that this holds
good.
The commonest sites for cancer are the womb, the breast, and the
stomach. These together account for more than sixty per cent. of all
cancers, and far below them in frequency we find the tongue, the lip,
and the bowel, and the various glands.
Cancer of the womb is constantly preceded for many years by
disease, palpable and curable, often the result of childbearing, and
the part where it occurs is one bathed in an acid medium.
Cancer of the breast also is constantly associated with preceding
chronic inflammation, this condition itself producing, as one of its by-
products, a highly acid substance, further to irritate the delicate cells
already near the end of their tether. Mechanical irritation, beyond a
doubt, is an important factor. Although in civilised countries the
disease is distressingly common, in those countries where the
breasts are habitually uncovered, cancer of this organ is extremely
rare. The habitual friction of modern clothes predisposes cell-growth,
infection from no matter what source is given a foothold, and after
years of abuse, the cells lose the impulse to normal reaction and at
last turn and slay their victim.
There is evidence that about two-thirds of all the cases of cancer
of the stomach originate in an old gastric ulcer, and the constant
eating of hot food is perhaps enough to account for the remaining
third. The delicate gastric cells, more abused than any other cells in
the body, are bathed in a highly acid medium. It is no wonder that
departure from their appointed path accounts for thirty per cent. of all
cancers in men, and in women as well, if we except the two
conditions just mentioned.
In cancer of the kidney, the bladder, and the gall bladder, stones
are nearly always present to initiate the irritation.
In cancer of the tongue, syphilitic or other preceding conditions are
nearly always there, whether it be the irritation from raw alcohol, hot
tobacco smoke, or a broken tooth. It is interesting to note that, until
syphilis appeared in Europe, cancer of the tongue was practically
unrecorded in the existing literature. We have no need to go any
further for examples of these precancerous irritative conditions. They
are all curable or removable, but, as they do not as a rule give rise to
acute painful symptoms, severely inconveniencing the patient, they
are difficult to treat, and the unfortunate patient is told to wait and
see, and is given medicine which may for a while relieve, but which
—alas!—seldom has a chance to cure, or to prevent the fate which is
slowly overtaking him.
So far the evidence which has been brought before you, that
chronic irritation has a causal connection with cancer, has been of a
circumstantial nature: it has often enough been found in what we
may call suspicious circumstances, but that does not prove that by
itself it can directly cause the disease. If a man is seen hanging
about the place where a burglary has been committed, it does not
prove that he participated in it. He may be a burglar, or he may be
what lawyers call an accessory before the fact, and before we can
feel reasonably sure that he is a guilty party we must, unless we can
actually see him committing the crime, find that whenever he is
present, and he has a chance, a burglary takes place.
Now in scientific investigation we can do what in ordinary life is not
possible; we can take our burglar, arrange a set of suitable
circumstances and see what happens and with what degree of
regularity thefts occur. In the last four or five years something like
this has been done on a large scale with cancer, and a large body of
evidence is accumulating which suggests that, given suitable
circumstances, chronic irritation will produce cancer with a fair
degree of regularity, at least in some places. If it will do so in some
places there is no reason to doubt that, under circumstances which
for the moment we do not quite understand, it will do so in all the
places where cancer is found.
That this is so has not yet been completely proved, but I think
there is a good deal of evidence along this line. It has been known
for a great number of years that certain skin cancers are constantly
found in people whose occupations necessitate their skin being in
contact with certain chemical irritants. For instance, the workers in
shale oil are often afflicted with cancer of the skin. In the spinning
industry, when reaching over to deal with the machinery, a place on
the worker’s leg is always rubbing up against an oily spindle. This
process goes on for years at the same spot, and these people are
found frequently to get cancer, beginning at the irritated place. Some
aniline dyes are excreted in the urine, and growths of the bladder are
very frequent in aniline workers. In India, some native tribes carry
little metal boxes containing charcoal next to their skin in order to
warm themselves, and the warmed spot frequently becomes the seat
of a malignant ulcer. Further, in chimney-sweeps, whose skin is
always more or less impregnated with carbon, we find that cancer
frequently develops in those places where the soot is difficult to
wash completely away and often is not cleaned off for years at a
time. Finally, we have the well-known examples of skin cancer
among X-ray workers, and mouth-cancer in those who chew betel
nut.
Now it is just this type of cancer that we have the opportunity to
imitate in the laboratory. Dr Leitch, of the Cancer Hospital, has taken
rats, guinea-pigs and rabbits; and, day after day for months, soot,
tar, oils and all the irritants he could think of were respectively
painted on some selected part of their bodies. At the Cancer Hospital
he started using tar to paint on the under surface of the bodies of
white mice. This was done every morning for several months, and, in
a large percentage of cases, small warts were produced. The fate of
these warts varied; some of them disappeared, but others
progressed to the formation of true cancer. The results of these
experiments made it extremely probable that the irritants were the
direct cause of the cancer. Of course it is not proved, for it is possible
to assume that there is some ubiquitous “other cause”, only waiting
till the tissue resistance is lowered enough by the irritants to get its
chance to act. Another interesting fact, which transpired as the result
of this work, is that some of the animals from whom the warts
disappeared developed cancer a month or so subsequent to the
disappearance, thus showing that the predisposition to cancer
formation is acquired long before the growth actually appears.
In human beings, the process of cancer formation in response to
chemical irritants takes much longer (often twenty to thirty years),
and is preceded by much the same sort of preliminary skin reaction
as in animals.
In looking for a proximal cause for cancer production, we should
not, I think, look for a common cause in all cases, but should try to
find something or anything which will produce the necessary
previous irritation.
It has not, I think, been established beyond a doubt that chronic
irritation is the sole exciting cause of cancer—this in the nature of
things would be very difficult to prove—but it has been shewn that its
presence strongly predisposes to new growth formation.
The problem which now arises is that of how we are going to put
this knowledge we have gained to practical use in the prevention of
cancer. In order to solve this we will consider in some detail the three
commonest cancers met with, namely cancer of the breast, the
womb and the stomach, and we will see how the problem applies to
them.
Now in cancer of the breast we have this outstanding fact that,
almost all the cases show for some years beforehand obvious signs
of chronic inflammation of the breast, and in nearly all of them this
precancerous stage can be seen, when they are examined
microscopically.
Obviously this is the time to deal with the disease; and the way to
do so is systematically to examine microscopically (by a procedure in
itself devoid of all risk, except the very small one due to the
administration of a general anaesthetic), every doubtfully malignant
breast, afflicted by chronic inflammation. This may seem a
revolutionary thing to say; but if we set ourselves to deal with this
plague in the logical manner that we employ when we sit down to
deal with any other pest, and, if we follow all the facts known to their
inevitable conclusion, we are driven to it, and we shall see that there
is no other course open to us but to deal in a wholesale manner with
the precancerous condition. To do this we shall have to undertake a
long campaign of education. One of the leading authorities on breast
cancer in America, did undertake such a campaign in his own
district, with the result that, from the enthusiastic propaganda of one
man, the proportion of precancerous to fully developed malignant
lesions which appeared at his clinic rose in six years by thirteen per
cent. In twenty years the proportion of fully developed cancer to pre-
malignant lesions dropped from ninety to seventy-eight per cent.
I am quite sure of the fact that the adoption of this proposal would
mean operations upon a number of breasts which would never
become cancerous, but, so far as I can see, we cannot help this, any
more than we can help vaccinating a large number of people who
will never have small-pox, or, when we isolate diphtheria contacts,
can we help disturbing also a large number of people who will never
get diphtheria. The public have been educated to regard these
precautions as natural and proper, and as a rule raise no objections
to their being carried out. Dr Bloodgood, to whose educational work I
have just referred, states that if any woman could be kept under
sufficiently close observation, she could be practically assured
against death from cancer. I think every other surgeon of experience
would agree with him.
So much for prevention and the precancerous lesions. Let us
come to the question of the cure. Here we find that the chances of
cure in any particular case simply depend on the stage at which the
case appears for treatment. We can for convenience divide cases
into two groups; those which have glands involved and those which
have not. By this I mean those which have glands so grossly
involved that they are appreciable to the touch. Again quoting Dr
Bloodgood, it is found that of those cases with gland involvement,
twenty-three per cent. only are cured after seven years but, of those
without gland involvement, sixty-five per cent.
Now, here is the fact which ought to rouse us to action: the
average duration of the disease in these cured cases was nine
months—nine precious months in which that remaining thirty, or forty,
per cent. might have been cured if they had only been treated
earlier. Or, if they had been properly examined still earlier by a
trained person, the disease could have been dealt with earlier with a
still better chance of ultimate cure, and it is Dr C. H. Mayo who has
said that there is no reason on earth why about ninety-five per cent.
of all cases of cancer of the breast cannot be permanently cured.
So far we have spoken in detail of cancer of the breast but, when
we come to deal with cancer of the uterus, we shall find that the facts
are almost exactly analogous, only that the results of indecision and
delay are even more deplorable. We find that, by the time they come
for treatment, about half the cases are quite incurable, and those
which are operable are as a rule a great deal further advanced than
those of cancer of the breast. In spite of this we find that out of two
hundred consecutive cases no less than forty per cent. were cured;
that is to say, had no recurrence within seven years. All the cases
which were operated on had had quite definite symptoms for six
months. In other words, the patient herself should have come for
examination six months before she did, and if she had been
examined in the course of a proper routine, the disease could have
been discovered far earlier than was the case.
Quite recently, a report of a series of cases has been published by
Professor Faure, a distinguished French gynæcologist, which so
exactly illustrates my views that perhaps I may be forgiven for
making use of it. Faure cut ninety-six cases of cancer of the uterus
and has divided them into good cases, mediocre cases and bad
cases. It is significant that there were only twenty-one “good” cases,
thirty-five “mediocre” cases and forty “bad” cases. The good cases
are what I have called early cases, the mediocre cases correspond
to moderately advanced cancer, and the bad cases to those which
are on the border line between operability and non-operability. His
total results approximate very nearly to most other published lists but
their analysis is very significant. Of the good cases there was one
operative death; of the remainder seventy-five per cent. were cured
and twenty-five per cent. recurred.
Of the mediocre cases there was an operative mortality of 8.57%.
Of those surviving the operation 62.5% were cured and 37.5%
recurred. In the bad cases there was a post-operative mortality of
22.5%: only six were cured and twenty-five recurred. That is to say,
respectively, 19.35% were cured and 80.65% recurred. These
figures tell their own tale.
With this hopeless condition of affairs it is no use saying that the
results of surgery are bad. They are; but it is not the fault of doctors,
or the methods at their disposal; it is the misfortune of the patient
that her lack of proper education must bear the blame.
Cancer of the uterus is in many cases preceded by precancerous
lesions, all amenable to various kinds of treatment. Again, the only
way to deal with it is not to wait and see whether a woman has got
cancer but to look and see that she has not. Until this is our attitude,
the results are not likely to be much better, whatever the means at
our disposal for its cure.
Finally, turning to another great group of cancers which make up
thirty per cent. of all in men (and in women too, if we exclude the two
previously mentioned types), we find exactly the same condition of
affairs.
In two out of every three cases of cancer of the stomach there is
evidence that it has arisen in an old ulcer, and Dr Mayo has
suggested that eating hot food may account for the remaining third. It
is moreover the experience of all surgeons who systematically
submit all gastric ulcers upon which they operate to microscopic
examination, that about twenty per cent. of them all are malignant.
We have before us the plain fact that from ten to twenty per cent.
of all chronic ulcers which have come for surgical treatment are
already malignant and can only be cured by a complete removal.
Another fact also requires taking into the most serious consideration,
and this is, that it is the considered opinion of by far the large
majority of experienced surgeons that exploration and some form of
operation is the best treatment for every case of chronic gastric ulcer
which has recurred once, or at least twice, after a thorough course of
medical treatment. (The term “chronic gastric ulcer” is here used in
its strictest scientific sense, and by it is meant an ulcer whose
diameter in any one direction is more than a centimeter, and whose
edges are hard and thickened). In spite of this, a distinguished
surgeon recently put on record that every case of gastric ulcer upon
which he operated had on an average been “cured” nine times. Why
is this? The reason is clear. In nearly every case the symptoms of
gastric ulcer (and, remember! twenty per cent. are already
cancerous) can be relieved for a time by palliative treatment, when
once again the deluded patient thinks he is cured.
There is no need for me to point the lesson from this. I have put
forward the facts, and every one can draw his own conclusions.
There is only one gleam of hope that I can see on the horizon, and
that is, in dealing with the disease in an early stage by radical
measures, and, in twenty per cent. of the cases, thus combining
prevention with cure.
Again, we must alter our attitude. We must look and see, not
merely “dope” and see! Once symptoms of this disease have
recurred after efficient treatment, there is only one good reason for
not looking and making certain, and that is when the risks of looking
exceed those of the lesion being malignant—that is to say,
somewhere between ten and twenty per cent. At present, the risks of
looking are about one in a thousand, and the risks of removal of a
cancer about three per cent., taking all cases, most of which are at
an advanced stage. The operative risks of earlier cases are less than
this, and to this must be added about a two per cent. risk of a further
operation being necessary—in all, not exceeding five per cent.
I realise that the adoption of this policy will mean a certain number
of otherwise avoidable operations. I know that it will mean operating
on a few cases that would otherwise get better by themselves, or by
other means. But until it is adopted, there is, as far as I can see, no
prospect of reducing the death-rate from cancer of the stomach. For
so long as indiscriminate medicine-taking has precedence over exact
methods of investigation and treatment, so long will cancer of the
stomach continue to make up thirty per cent. of all cancers. Again
the question is largely out of the hands of the doctors. As long as
patients come to a doctor wanting “a bottle of medicine, doctor, just
to help me carry on”, so long will they get it, as the doctor finds it
hard to refuse. For he knows the patient will go from doctor to doctor
till he gets what he wants.
I have dealt in some detail with the three commonest types of
cancer, but the same arguments apply to all. The problem is not so

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Electrostatics and Current Electricity

for JEE (Advanced) 3rd edition - eBook

Introduction 3.1 Exercises 3.39

Work Done to Move a Charge Single Correct Answer Tipe 3.39

Equipotential Surface 3.6 4. Capacitor and Capacitanee 4.1-4.62

Concept Application Exercise 5.6 5.47 7. Heating Effects of Current

Solved Examples 5.49 Heating Effects of Current 7.1-7.24

Concept Application Exercise 6.2 6.14 Chapter 4

Solved Examples 6.15 Chapter 5

Exercises 6.21 Chapter 6 5.1

After this solemn prediction, he said to him, “Follow me.” This

Here ceased their course of instruction under their Divine Master;

My own opinion of the nature of this whole phenomenon is that of Michaelis,

This wonderful event took place in the chamber of the temple,

Peter then proceeded to refer them for a more just explanation of

The success which followed Peter’s first effort in preaching the

This vast addition to the assembly of the disciples at Jerusalem,

the christian community.

In the constitution of the first church of Christ, there seems to have

Taking their food at home.――This is my interpretation of κλωντες κατ’ οἶκον αρτον,

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