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.

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    ! opinion supported by so high an authority. Instead, however, of entering into any fresh disquisition on the subject, I have appended to this work a recently published tract on chloroform; shewing with what risk the administration of it, even for short periods, is attended in wounds. The removal of cancer by caustic is a proceeding attended with dangers of the same kind as those which have made the adminis¬ tration of chloroform the cause of so great an in¬ crease of mortality after operations.* The objection that has sometimes been made to the removal of cancer by local means, that if even the local affection could be perfectly or permanently removed by them, they would be of no service, as the disease is constitutional, is not a well founded objection. Another common disease, consumption, is also an affection of the constitution, but supposing it could be effected, would there be no advantage in removing tubercles from the lungs and healing the ulcers caused by them \ General diseases prove fatal by their local manifestations or effects, and if these can be prevented or removed without injury to the constitution, the patient’s safety will often be se¬ cured. To neglect local measures under these cir¬ cumstances would be as absurd as to refuse to * It was stated, at the last meeting of the Medical Society of London, that there is a general disuse of chloroform in the pro¬ vincial hospitals of England. In the hospital at Leeds, it has never, I believe, been much employed.