What Would’ve Happened if Brer Rabbit Didn’t Get the Coal Tar Off?

Perhaps I’m dating myself, but remember the old Uncle Remus story where Brer Rabbit, who was covered in tar, tricked Brer Fox into throwing him into a briar patch?  There he was able to scrape the tar off of himself.  But what would’ve happened if Brer Rabbit didn’t get the tar off?

That question was answered long ago and has been nearly forgotten.  Nearly 100 years ago, scientists were mystified at what exactly caused cancer.  Some thought it was parasites or bacteria; others thought it might be from repeated exposure to harmful chemicals, but no one knew for sure.  Until some Japanese researchers decided to put their chemical exposure theory to the test.

In 1915 Drs. Koichi Ichikawa and Katsusaburo Yamagiwa of the Hokkaido University, Japan painted coal tar on the ears of 101 rabbits every 2 or 3 days. They designed their experiment because of the common knowledge that boys who were chimney sweeps developed cancers from exposure to tar build-up on the inside of chimneys.  Abnormal growths were seen on the rabbit ears in just 30 to 100 days. After 150 days, 100% of the rabbits developed cancer.

For this discovery, the first of its kind, Ichikawa and Katsusaburo were nominated for a Nobel Prize, which would have been Japan’s first. Ironically they lost out to a Danish researcher who had compelling evidence that stomach cancers were caused by parasites, which was later proven to be false.