The arrest of growth in four cases of cancer by a powerful interrupted voltaic current / by J. Inglis-Parsons.

  • Parsons, J. Inglis, 1857-1928.
Date:
1889
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The arrest of growth in four cases of cancer by a powerful interrupted voltaic current / by J. Inglis-Parsons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    BY A Powerful Interrupted Voltaic Current. It may be said that I am premature in bringing these cases forward. The paucity of clinical material at my disposal must be my excuse. I might have to wait some time before again obtaining suitable cases for testing the principles brought forward. The only patients that I have had an opportunity of treating have been those who were beyond operative inter- ference, or too nervous to undergo an operation with the knife. The method of treatment about to be described is based upon the following considerations : First, with regard to the nature of cancer. The earliest pathologists regarded it as a dyscrasia,or altered constitution of the blood; then followed the embryonic cell theory; finally, the microbe was made to bear the burden of further misdeeds. Virchow, with his dogma, Omnis celliila e celhdd demolished the first. The second, propounded chiefly by Cohnheim, will not account for all tumours, even if it be admitted as possible that embryonic tissue can remain for a quarter to half a century in the human tissues, without partaking in the changes undergone by other cells in the body. Thirdly, all attempts to find the microbe have failed. The hypothesis now brought forward is founded on the fact that all the cells of the body possess a latent capacity which enables them, under various stimuli, to proliferate and form new tissue. Under normal conditions, this