Professor Major Archibald Leitch, Pathologist, RAMC (TF) Director Royal Cancer Research

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ARCHIBALD LEITCH, M.D. The death of Professor Archibald Leitch on January 27th, at the early age of 53, was the result of an affection of the heart of some years' duration, which had rapidly become more serious in the last few months. He was a native of the Island of Bute, and was educated at Rothesay Academy, where he was prominent as an oars-man and sprinter. He liked to recall that in the interval between school and college, when he had no other means of seeing the world, he crossed the Atlantic in the capacity of cabin-boy. He entered as a student at the University of Glasgow, where he held the

Duncan Bursary in-arts and the Paterson Bursary in natural philosophy and mathematics, and gained the Black medal for physics and the Dobbie-Smith gold medal for original research in botany, while in later life he was awarded' the Bellahouston gold medal for his research work.

He was president of the University Liberal Club, and remained throughout life a wholly unrepentant Free' Trader; he had many stories to tell of the methods of rectorial elections. He graduated in medicine in 1902. His connexion with the investigation of cancer began soon after qualification, when he was appointed house surgeon at the Cancer Hospital, London.

He went from there in 1905 to the Middlesex Hospital Cancer Research Laboratories, which at that time were very active in many new lines of investigation under a recently appointed chief, Dr. (Professor) Lazarus-Barlow. He then spent some years in Dundee as director of the Caird Research Laboratory, where he carried out many experiments on immunization against inoculated tumours.

He returned to the Cancer Hospital inn 1912, when he was appointed pathologist; after the war he became director of the Research Institute, and there his best-known work on cancer was done. Soon after the outbreak of war he obtained a commission in the R.A.M.C., Territorial Force, serving in France with one of the field ambulances of the 58th Division, and later with the 63rd Casualty Clearing Station; finally he was the officer in charge of a mobile bacteriological laboratory in the Fifth Army area.

In 1922 Leitch demonstrated the cancer-producing power of shale oil, and thus showed where to seek for the cause of the cancer of the skin which is prevalent in cotton mule-spinners. In the succeeding years he showed that some petroleums are likewise carcinogenic. He found also experimentally that such cancers may arise after the application of the cancer-producing agents has ceased, and thus threw light upon those cases in man where an occupational cancer appears long after the work to which it is to be attributed has been given up.

He was successful in repeating Kazama's experiments on the production of tumours in the gall-bladder of the guinea-pig by the insertion of foreign bodies. He carried out a good deal Director of the Cancer Hospital Research Institute; Professor of work on the Rous tumour and on the tumours produced of Experimental Pathology, University of London in fowls by the inoculation of tar and embryo pulp, at the time of his last illness he was engaged in experiments in chemotherapy. Throughout his association cancer research he was convinced that the most important become more serious in the last few months. He was a thing was the investigation of every means of producing cancer which could be used experimentally, and thought that in the long run this would prove the surest means of gaining control over the disease

His critical judgement was very acute, and was often applied with good effect to alleged discoveries. The value of his opinion in questions relating to cancer was due in large part to the fact that he was a good morbid anatomist and an exceptionally sound pathological histologist -- qualifications which even nowadays are not out of date. He was original research in botany, very well aware that every theory of cancer, however brilliant (for example, the view that a cancer arises from a single abnormal cell), must somehow make itself compatible with what one can see in any ordinary microscopical section. Leitch liked to to acknowledge his debt to his teacher in botany, Professor Bower, for training in the difficult art of impartial observation and in the discipline of not seeing things that are not there. His long experience of the difficulties of cancer research in the days before the experimental production of cancer in animals led him to express generous admiration for the work of Fibiger, and it was perhaps due in part to Leitch's advocacy that Fibiger, during the short remainder of his life, received fitting appreciation as a discoverer of the first rank. Leitch was fond of relating where he carried out many stories, and had quite exceptional powers of mimicry. His presentation of what had occurred at a committee Hospital inn 1912, when he meeting was often extremely vivid, and contained a great deal of matter not to be found in the minutes. Anyone who had heard him enact a lecture by Lord Kelvin on the propagation of sound, illustrated by calculations not free from error upon a prodigiously wide blackboard, could never forget the humour of it.

He worked for the British Empire Cancer Campaign in many capacities; he was a member of the Grand Council, of the Cancer Review, and of the Investigation Committee, and served this last, and the Scientific Advisory Committee as honorary secretary during the past year, until he was incapacitated by illness.

He was an able member of any committee, and was apt to have an admirablv clear grasp of the weak points of his opponent's case. He edited for the Campaign the valuable report of the International Conference on Cancer in London in July, 1928. thus threw light upon those cases in man where an He represented the Cancer Hospital at many international conferences, and found great enjoyment in these meetings. He was an enthusiastic member of the Leeuwenhoek Vereeniging, an international society of cancer research workers; the very name of this body was due to a timely suggestion of his own, whereby certain differences of opinion G about the priority of the French or of the German language were circumvented.

He was a corresponding member of the Association fransaise pour l'1tude du Cancer, and an honorary member of the Deutsches Zentralkomitee zur Erforschung und Bekampfung der Krebskrankheit, and general secretary of the International Cancer Comrnittee.  He was consulted by authorities in manly parts of the world about schemes of cancer research. Leitch was vice-president of the Section of Pathology when the British Mledical Association held its annual meeting in Glasgow in 1922 and of the Section of Occupational Diseases at the Manchester meeting of 1929. He was also a member of the Research and Laboratory Workers' Subcommittee in 1919-21, and gave valued help to the British Medical Journal on many occasions, more particularly when the Epitome was revived after the war. He leaves a widow, a son who is studying medicine at Merton College, Oxford, and three daughters. In the spring of 1930 he was deeply distressed by the death of his colleague and close friend Dr. H. J. B. Fry. Anyone wlho knew Leitch well will have little doubt that the anxiety and sorrow arising from Fry's fatal illness may have played soime part in hastening the last failure of his own strength.

Mr. W. ERNEST MILES, F.R.C.S., writes:

It is sad to know that Archibald Leitch henceforth will no longer be found in his'accustomed place in the laboratory of the Cancer Hospital Research Institute, for death has claimed an earnest worker and a valued friend, whose wonderful personality now remains only as a memory. My association with Leitch began as far back as 1903, when he was appointed house-surgeon to the Cancer Hospital, and during the years that have since passed acquaintance ripened into lasting friendship. Although at first he fostered the idea of becoming a surgeon, the wealth of pathological material that lay at his hand attracted him to the study of the pathology of malignant disease. Durinig the two years of his residence at the hospital his spare time was spent in the pathological laboratory and in the post-mortem room, thus laying the foundation of the brilliant achievements in cancer research which have earned for him the reputation that will endure as a permanent monument to his industry.

Archie Leitch, for he was so known to all his friends,was a man of unswerving loyalty and rectitude, and a tower of strength in council, whose expressed opinions were always the outcome of well-considered judgement. Endowed with an acutely critical mind, he accepted nothing that could not be proved by the demonstrable facts of pathology. He held strong views, and had the moral courage to express them strongly. " Fortiter in re " was his motto, particularly in debate, and woe to the adversary who had omitted to confirm his facts or was guilty of loose thinking or careless composition. His criticisms were in the main destructive, but nearly always right, for he was a ruthless dissector of ill-founded theories or imperfectly planned experiments. The Cancer Hospital, which he served so well, and its Research Institute, which by his genius and his industry he had placed in the foremost rank of centres for experimental research, have suffered an irreparable loss, and his colleagues there and I mourn an intimate and personal friend.

Dr. J. A. MURRAY, F.R.S., writes: The death of Professor Leitch removes an interesting personality from the domain of cancer research in this country. His association with the subject comprised the detail of all whole of his scientific life in London, Dundee, and again in London at the Cancer Hospital. While in Dundee he made valulable contributions to the problems of immunity to transplantable tumours, and to the pathology of the curious multiple tumours of the rabbit's~ uterus. His most valuable work fell in the post-war. period, and dealt with the problems of experimental carcinogenesis.

Especially important were his demonstrations of the production of skin cancer in mice by arsenious acid, and the fact that the carcinogenic action of tar was not dependent on the arsenic content of the tar. Of fundamental importance was his observation that carcinoma might develop after cessation of tarring before proliferative changes had appeared. The late supervention of occupational cancer in individuals who had left the incriminated occupation for many years was thus clearly brought within the riange of direct irritative causation and compensation. This practical application of his results, and the related problems of mule-spinners' cancer, occupied Leitch in later years to the exclusion of the further prosecution of the theoretical implications and avenues of development opened up by them.

Professor C.- H. BROWNING, F.R.S., writes:

British pathology has suffered a great loss from the early death of Archibald Leitch, and those who knew him well realize that they are the poorer by a loyal and generous friend. In his work, as in all other affairs of life, he had a horror of shams, and the keen criticism to which he subjected his own efforts was turned also  upon those of others. So it may come about that by some  he will be remembered chiefly as a pertinacious and pungent controversialist. But when at times the  expression of his objections appeared to be severe the aim was  always directed upon what he conceived to be self-deception and the dangers to the cause of truth attendant  thereon. His criticisms never bore the slightest trace of personal feeling. Leitch's work was inspired by an intense desire to lessen human suffering. Had circumstances been favourable at an early stage of his career surgery would have been the richer by an able exponent of its art and  science. Thus when he turned to cancer research he firmly held in view the aid which advances in knowledge  could afford, especially to the surgeon; for he strongly believed that the surgeon must long remain the most essential factor in dealing with cancer in the patient. From this aspect his share in the investigation of the paths of lymphatic spread of cancer will remain a contribution of the highest value. But not merely was he a  specialist in cancer reseach ; his interest in the problems of pathology and infection was universal, and equalled only by the soundness of his knowledge and judgement.

[1] J Obs Gyn Brit Emp 1914 V-26history-of-obgyn.com

[2] Leitch : Migratory Adenomyomata of IJterus 83 Migratory Adenomyomata of the Uterus. By Archibald Leitch, Pathologist to the Cancer Hospital, London

The first Director of the Institute, AlexanderPaine(1866-1933), held this post from 1909 to 1921 when his appointment was terminated. At this time the Pathologist(Leitch) and the Director of Research (Paine) were given notice of the termination of their appointments as it had been decided that the Pathology Department and the Research Institute should be separated and that each should have its own director. Paine,who was upset at this decision,fell ill and suffered as ever e break down in health;he was never the same man again and after his connexion with the Institute was severed he took no further part in research and retired to the Isle of Wight where he died in December 1933.

Archibald Leitch:

At the termination of Paine's appointment in single thread that led through all this labyrinth', early 1921 Archibald Leitch (1878-1931) was and it soon enabled him and his colleagues to appointed Director of the Institute. Leitch had track down the carcinogenic agent (Haddow 1959, formerly been a house surgeon at the hospital Kennaway 1955). The discovery of carcinogenic chemical agents and had returned in 1912 as pathologist after having had experience in cancer research at the opened up an entirely new chapter of cancer Middlesex Hospital and as Director of the Caird research. It demonstrated for the first time that Institute for Cancer Research at Dundee. As malignant tumours exactly akin to human cancer soon as he was appointed he turned at once to could be induced by the application to animals of occupy himself with experimental research on pure chemical compounds of known molecular carcinogenic tars and oils, in collaboration with structure. In recognition of his outstanding scientific his colleague Kennaway, of whom more will be achievements Kennaway received many honours said later. No doubt Leitch was influenced in his decision and distinctions. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute to engage in experimental work by his friend Dr Royal Society in 1934, was awarded the Royal J A Murray, then Director of the laboratory of the Medal of the Society in 1941, and was knighted in Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and by the great 1947. After leaving the staff of the Institute stimulus which followed the discovery by the in 1946 he continued his researches at St Japanese in 1915-8 that cancer could be artificial Bartholomew's Hospital until his death in ally produced by long-continued application of January 1958. Three years before he died Kennaway himself coal-tar to the skin of the rabbit or mouse.

Leitch made important additions to knowledge wrote an account of the way in which the carcino of chemical carcinogenesis.

In 1922 he demon- genic compound in coal-tar was identified, exstrated the carcinogenic power of shale oil and plaining exactly the part played by each of the lubricants derived from it and so threw light on colleagues who had helped him in this investigate recently recognized mule-spinners' cancer in gation (Kennaway 1955). He was very appreciative of the help his wife gave Lancashire. He was one of the first to draw attention also to the fact that cancer appears in him in all his scientific work. He said of her, when tarred mice long after the application of the he retired from the Directorship of the Chester irritant has been discontinued. His ability was Beatty Research Institute: 'She has been a recognized by the University of London which tary worker here, in every sense of the word, for appointed him its first Professor of Experimental twenty-four years.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine

help in both biological and statistical matters. All this has been done very unobtrusively and I am very grateful to her.' Finally, those of us who knew Kennaway personally will never forget the way he overcame the handicap of his long affliction with Parkinson's disease. The tremor of hands and characteristic gait were present even before he was appointed Director of the Institute, in 1931. Then again, shortly before his retirement in 1946 he met with a serious street accident and was confined to bed for a long period. His former colleague J W Cook said of him that 'the intense driving force of his will-power must have contributed in large measure to his mastery of the increasingly adverse circumstances of his later years' (Cook 1958).

[1] The Origin and Early History of the Institute of Cancer Research of the Royal Cancer Hospital Section of the History of Medicine President W S C Copeman OBE FRCP,Volume 58 January 1965, p33