Observations on the history, pathology, and treatment of cancerous diseases / by Oliver Pemberton.

Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the history, pathology, and treatment of cancerous diseases / by Oliver Pemberton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    of multitudinous secondary deposits of the same black colour in the cellular tissue of the body, or of its internal organs. When a cutaneous wart degenerates, if it is of a pinkish colour, the first indication of change in its character is perhaps evidenced in the discovery of black streaks running across its free surface, or darkening the imbricated margins of the growth, as it rests sessile on the part to which it is attached. Their changes are singularly devoid of pain, and indeed effect no apparent alteration in the hitherto harmless growth, beyond that which the eye detects in the colour. In the eye. The globe becomes distended by the morbid growth, which first locates itself between the choroid and the retina. In the earlier stage a dark livid colour is presented, and after a time, when the tunics, by pressure, have become absorbed or ruptured, a fungous mass of the characteristic sooty blackness pushes its way outwards. The further progress of the disease in this situation is manifested by the discharge of black fluids, and by the breaking-off of masses of the protruding fungus. Rarely, do the neighbouring glands become affected, but secondary deposits abound in their customary haunts. Unlike the development of cutaneous melanotic cancer, the growth of that of the eye is from first to last accompanied by severe pain. This is, however, owing to the unyielding nature of the parts, and not to any difference between the characteristics of the disease in the skin and the eye. Mr. Wardrop* has recorded an instance in which, in a subject, aged forty, a portion of the conjunctiva covering the nasal side of the sclerotic was converted into a dark coloured mass, precisely the shade of Indian ink. A few instances had come under his notice of melanosis affecting the conjunctiva. The instance in the lower jaw is recorded by Miillert as having been removed from that part by M. V. Graefe. The tumour was a large lobulated one, and required the separation of a large portion of the hone. Its examination displayed cells containing pigment granules. Some of the cells were of a paleish yellow colour, others darker, whilst the interior of others was stained dark brown by the contained pigment. Mr. Stanley.^ after referring to the preceding case, remarks: “ Me- lanosis in bone has very rarely occurred as a primary disease; its general, and perhaps invariable, character lias been that of a secondary disease, manifesting itself in instances where there had been melanotic deposits in some of the soft structures, but more especially in the eye and in the skin.” * Lancet; vol. xi, p. 87. 1 Essay mi Cancer; p. 56; translated by West. London, 1810. % Treatise an Diseases a/ the Dunes. London, 1819 ; p. 257.