thing more idle than to destroy and break down
cells which have actually become cancerous; but so long as there remains
in the body a single nest, or even cell, of the organ in which the
revolt started, so long the life of the patient is in danger.

Absolutely the only remedy which is of the slightest value is complete
removal with the knife. The one superiority of the knife, shudder as we
may at the name of it, over every other means of removal lies solely in
this fact, that with it can be removed not merely the actual cancer, but
the entire gland or group of surrounding cells in which this malignant,
parricidal change has begun to occur.

The modern radical operations for cancer take not merely the tumor, but
the entire diseased breast, for instance, and all the lymph-glands into
which it drains, clear up into the armpit, with the muscles beneath it
down to the ribs. Where this is done early enough, the disease does not
recur. Such radical and complete amputation of an organ or region as
this is possible in from two-thirds to three-fourths of all cases if
seen reasonably early.

With watchfulness and courage, our attitude toward the cancer problem is
one of hopeful confidence.

CHAPTER XVII

HEADACHE: THE MOST USEFUL PAIN IN THE WORLD

Greatness always has its penalties. Other ills besides death love a
shining mark. Pain is one of them, and headache its best exemplar. If
there be one thing about our bodies of which we are peculiarly and
inordinately proud it is that expanded brain-bulb which we call the
head. Yet it aches oftener than all the rest of us put together.
Headache is the commonest of all pains, which fact gives the slight
consolation that everybody can sympathize with you when you have it. One
touch of headache makes the whole world kin, and the man or woman who
has never had it would be looked upon as a creature abnormal and "a
thing apart." It has even become incorporated into our social fabric as
one of the sacred institutions of the game of polite society. How could
we possibly protect ourselves against our instructors in youth and our
would-be friends in later life if there were no such words as "a severe
headache"?

What is a headache, and why does it ache the head? This is a wide and
hotly disputed problem. But one fact, which is obvious at the first
intelligent glance, becomes clearer and more important with deeper
study, and that is that it _is not the fault of the head_. When the