340

SCIRRHUS AND CANCER.

"Wort, or an infusion of malt, has been recommended, not onlyas a proper drink, but as a powerful medicine in this disease. Itmust be frequently made fresh, and the patient may take it atpleasure. Two, three, or even four English pints of it may bedrank every day for a considerable time. No benefit can be ex-pected from any medicine in this disease, unless it be persisted infor a long time. It is of too obstinate a nature to be soon remov-ed-; and, when it admits of a cure at all, it must be brought aboutby inducing an almost total change of the habit, which must al-ways be a work of time. Setons or issues in the neighbourhoodof the cancer have sometimes good effects.* A cancerous ulcerof the tongue has been cured by nitric acidt and opium, which hadresisted various remedies. An opiate was given at night ; and theacid, to prevent it from corroding the teeth, was directed to besucked through a tube. In fourteen days after the exhibition ofthis medicine, healthy ora nidations were seen to shoot out from thebottom of the ulcer, which gradually healed from this time ; andin the course of three months, although half tine tongue had beenin a state of ulceration, was perfectly healed. Nothing was appliedto the diseased part but a lotion composed of the extract of hem-lock, rectified spirit and water, to which little or no efficacy wasascribed.

Applications of a caustic nature have been much used in the ul-cerated stage of cancer, and they have been employed under a va-riety of forms ; but their principal ingredients have been wellknown to be either arsenic or corrosive sublimate. The mostnoted are the Arundel powder, Guy's powder, and Plunket's pow-der : which last is a composition of crow's-foot, dog's-fennel, andarsenic. None of these have ever produced the smallest benefit ; onthe contrary, they all occasion infinitely more pain than the morecertain method of cure, when taken in due time, by the operationof cutting out the cancerous core ; but, unfortunately, by such em-pirical, mercenary, and fallacious means as the above, the unhap-py patient has been but too frequently beguiled beyond the periodwhen the operation might have been attended with success.

As a topical application in external cancer, such as of the lip,breast, &c, lint dipped in a solution of the subborate of soda.fand applied to the ulcerated surface, removing it as often as it be-comes dry, has been frequently attended with a good effect.

* In a cancer which had set all medicines, and even surgery, at defiance, I latelysaw remarkable effects from an obstinate perseverance in a course of antiseptics. Iordered the deep ulcers to be washed to the bottom by means of a syringe, twice orthrice a-day, either with an infusion of the bark, or a decoction of carrot, and that thepatient should take, four or five times a-day, a glass of good wine, with half a drachmof the best powdered bark in it. The sores, after being washed, were likewise sprin-kled with the same powder. When the patient began this course, her death was dailyexpected. She continued it for about two years, with manifest advantage ; but beingtold by an eminent surgeon, that the bark would not cure a cancer, and that the soresought not to be washed, she discontinued the practice, and died in a few weeks. TM»course was not expected to cure the cancer, but to prolong the patient's life, which itevidentlv did almost to a miracle.

t Take Diluted Nitric Acid, 1 ounce.

Honey, 2 ounces.

Pure Water, 2 pints.

Mix. Three table-spoonsful are to betaken frequently throughout the day.

^Take Solution of Subborate of Soda,

3 drachms.

Extract of Henbane, 2 drachms.

Distilled Water made warm, S at.

Make a lotion, to be applied to the part

affected,