Welsh Journals

these issues, and one could have wished for more extensive and synthetic opening or concluding chapters. But this is only one quibble about a book which will be essential reading for students of both Welsh and newspaper history. VIRGINIA BERRIDGE London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine CANCER CURERS-OR QUACKS? THE STORY OF A SECRET HERBAL REMEDY. By T. Llew Jones and D. Wyn Jones. Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1993. Pp. 128. £ 4.50, paperback. Daniel and John Evans were two brothers who lived in Ferwig, Cardigan, in the nineteenth century. Daniel was born in 1843 and John in 1848. In common with many other unorthodox practitioners they had a secret cure. They prospered, after their fashion, because in medical practice treatment has always held a more important place for the patient than the niceties of diagnosis. There is, however, an ever-present difficulty in assessing the real efficacy of therapy. What might have happened with a different treatment must either be the subject of scientific enquiry or perforce remain a guess. Those afflicted who survive and get better often like to tell a thankful tale. And a number of the Cardigan patients did. The romance of it has tempted T. Llew Jones, who is a master story-teller. In conjunction with his co-author, D. Wyn Jones, he gives us a tale that is easy to read from beginning to end. The brothers claimed they had a cure for cancer and this book sets out a case for the defence and denies that they exploited the secret to their own advantage. The reasons for their undoubted success with some patients are not convincingly argued. The concealment of the recipe of what the family believed to be a real cure continued into the next generation. John's son, David Rees Evans, born in 1892, took the remedy to America, but his maintenance of its secrecy whilst asking for recognition of its value raises doubts about any claim for an altruistic motive. He was widely advertised by Hannen Swaffer, the popular columnist of the Daily Herald, who also contributed a powerfully supporting article on 2 June 1928 to Light, the official journal of the Spiritualists (p. 53). Many of the skin conditions reported in this book would fit the diagnosis of a less malignant cancer such as Rodent Ulcer. The siting on the face and their slow but relentless growth are characteristic. Those patients who got better were properly and vocally grateful. It is also quite possible to believe that zinc chloride, claimed by one investigation to be the active constituent of the miracle oil, could have effected the disappearance of a Rodent Ulcer. Some skin lesions, particularly the pre-cancerous solar keratoses, are now routinely treated with cryotherapy, which by burning the surface has the same effect as a caustic such as zinc chloride. The resulting crust sloughs off, just as the brothers describe. Rodent Ulcers are usually treated by 'burning' the malignant cells with radiotherapy or simple excision by surgery, and both methods have very good results. It is not difficult to believe that a solution of zinc chloride, by destroying the surface lesion, might have explained the Ferwig successes in this type of growth.