CANCER ROOT 323 CANDLEMAS As yet this has not been accomplished, but the prospect that it will be eventu- ally is increased by the work above re- corded. This would mean, apparently, routine vaccination for the prevention of cancer; possibly also a curative as well as a preventive vaccine. Just now this is the direction from which a cancer cure seems most likely to come. Increase of Cancer. — Regarding the supposed great increase in the occurrence of cancer, the more conservative sur- geons are skeptical. They believe that most of the apparent increase is due to (1) better diagnostic methods; that is, we recognize more tumors as cancers now than was the case formerly, and (2) the fact that more people live to the cancer age. (Cancer is particularly a disease of maturity and old age, although it occasionally occurs in young persons, and even children.) Among the most in- teresting discoveries of recent years in the cancer field is the fact that this dis- ease is of very widespread occurrence in both the animal and vegetable world. Wild as well as domestic animals are heavy sufferers from its ravages. The chief advance in the treatment of cancer in recent years has been in the employment of radium, which has proved to be an effective remedy. Applied to cancer in its early stages, radium has ef- fected a valuable cure and is an advan- tage even in aggravated cases. It is the gamma ray which is applied to the can- cerous growth. The alpha rays burn, and have to be screened off. The gamma rays destroy diseased tissue before they will attack sound tissue. The chief ob- stacle to the use of radium is its scarcity and expense. The State of JMew York in August, 1920, purchased 2 grams and one-quarter of radium for the free treat- ment of cancer and allied malignant dis- eases. This amount is sufficient to treat 2,000,000 patients. CANCER ROOT, or BEECH DROPS (Epiphegus virgmiana) , a parasitic herb of the order Orobanchese, a native of North America, growing on the exposed roots of beech-trees. The whole plant is powerfully astringent, and the root is especially bitter and nauseous. In con- junction with arsenious acid, it is be- lieved to have formed a medicine once famous in North America under the name of Martin's Cancer-powder. An- other American plant of the same order, Phelipsea biflora, sometimes shares the same name and repute in popular medi- cine; and an infusion of the Common Broomrape (Orobanche major) — a na- tive of Great Britain and of the S. of Europe, parasitic on the roots of broom, furze, and other leguminous plants— has been employed as a detergent application to foul sores. CANDACE, a name apparently com- mon to the warrior queens of Ethiopia, i. e., upper Nubia, between the Nile and the Atbara, in the later period of the Kingaom of Meroe. The most distin- gruished of them invaded Egypt 22 B. c, was defeated by the Romans and obliged to sue for peace, which she obtained, with a remission of the tribute imposed on her by Petronius. CANDIA. See Crete. CANDIDATE, a term taken from the Latin candidatus, a candidate, literally a person dressed in white, because, among the Romans, a man who solicited an office, such as the praetorship or con- sulship, appeared in a bright white gar- ment-— togra catidida. CANDLE, a light made of a wick of cotton or other material enveloped in prepared wax or tallow. Candles are primarily divided into dipped or mold candles, sometimes called dips and molds, according to the method of their manu- facture. Named from the materials em- ployed in their construction, they are paraffine, spermaceti, composition, stear- ine, tallow, palm-oil, or wax candles. CANDLEBERRY {Myrica cerifera), a shrub, natural order Myriceae, growing from 4 to 18 feet high, and common in North America, where candles are made from its drupes or berries, which are about the size of peppercorns, and cov- ered with a greenish-white wax, popu- larly known as Blayberry tallow. The wax is collected by boiling the drupes in water and skimming off the surface. A bushel of berries jrields from four to five pounds of wax. Another plant belonging to the same genus is the sweet-gale (Myrica Gale), which grows abundantly in bogs and marshes in Scotland — -a small shrub, with leaves somewhat like the myrtle or willow, of a fragrant odor and bitter taste, and yielding an essential oil by distillation. CANDLE FISH, a small fish peculiar to the Pacific coast of the United States. It is so oily that when dried and a wick is drawn through it, it will burn like a can- dle. It is allied to the Smelt family. CANDLEMAS, the feast of the Purifi- cation of the Blessed Virgin, Feb, 2; so-called from being formerly celebrated with processions and shows of candles. It was instituted in the 6th century, dur- ing the reign of Justinian, and came in lieu of the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which had been also celebrated in the month of February, and with candles.
