Hastings Gilford

Hastings Gilford (July 2, 1861 – September 6, 1941) F.R.C.S. was an English surgeon, best known for his description of Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome in 1897. Gilford was also an alternative cancer treatment advocate who wrote under the pseudonym John Cope.

Biography

Gilford was born at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England on July 2, 1861. He qualified M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. from Guy's Hospital in 1887. He took the F.R.C.S in 1889.

Gilford suggested that constipation from faulty foods causes cancer as well as irritants such as dentures, furnace heat, glass eyes, sexual perversion and tobacco. He took issue with milk, puddings and many liquids. He promoted a diet of fruit, meats and nuts. It was negatively reviewed in several medical journals. A review in the American Journal of Cancer concluded "This beautifully printed volume only repeats a lot of long since disproved ideas on the subject of cancer. It is not even accurate enough to place in the hands of the layman, for he will only wander among the quotations, anecdotes, and other ornaments which fill the book and look in vain for anything new about cancer." The book proposed some controversial ideas. Professor and historian Robert N. Proctor has described Gilford as a misogynist.

Gilford's last published book on cancer was The Cancer Problem and its Solution, in 1934. It received a mixed review in the Journal of the American Medical Association which disagreed with the thesis but applauded its interesting philosophical speculation. It was positively reviewed in the British Medical Journal.

Selected publications

The Disorders of Post-Natal Growth and Development (1911) Tumours and Cancers: A Biological Study (1925) Cancer: Civilization: Degeneration (1932) The Cancer Problem and its Solution (1934)