On the painless extirpation of cancerous growths by congelation and caustic : including a report of the recent use of prolonged congelation in the cancer wards of the Middelesex Hospital / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James (James Moncrieff), 1794-1885.
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the painless extirpation of cancerous growths by congelation and caustic : including a report of the recent use of prolonged congelation in the cancer wards of the Middelesex Hospital / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/40 (page 8)
    probably less power of permanently removing the disease than caustic well applied, it often proves quickly fatal Mr. Paget has inquired into the results of 235 excisions of tumours on the breast, and ascertained that there were 23 deaths; M. Lebert met with 6 deaths in 34 cases; Benedict and Me Farlane have stated that “ of 130 operations, 4 were immediately fatal”; and Professor Reid’s tables of the practice of the Edinburgh Infirmary, shew that of 25 patients operated upon 2 died. The supposed principal advantage of excision is, that if it does not prevent the recurrence of the disease, it at any rate prolongs life beyond the period which would be attained without an operation. Mr. Paget, who has particularly investigated this point, states, that as respects cancer of the breast, there is an average prolongation of a few months; but he does not allow this calculation to be affected by the cases that prove fatal from the operation itself, which he believes 66 are not less than ten per cent.”# That relapse of the disease is as certain and speedy after caustic as after excision has been doubted bv several, amongst whom must be included M. Velpeau. The experience of the caustic treatment at the Middlesex Hospital is unfavourable to this alleged superiority, but it were unfair to form an opinion from so small a number of cases, and the practice of an individual surgeon. I shall now proceed to describe the method of cure which I have adopted in lieu of these pro- * Lancetf January 1856.