On the treatment of cancer by congelation and an improved mode of pressure, separately or combined : with an appendix on the use of congelation in inflammatory affections of the uterus / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James (James Moncrieff), 1794-1885.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of cancer by congelation and an improved mode of pressure, separately or combined : with an appendix on the use of congelation in inflammatory affections of the uterus / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which had been called by Pliny the 11 venenum omnium rerum? Nor must we despair, that in the course of time a remedy will be found for consumption and-cholera—a remedy, at least, in the sense in which we speak of our remedies for typhoid and eruptive fevers, or a means of preventing or checking dangerous concomitants (such as, in respect to these diseases, inflamma¬ tion of important organs, or exhausting discharges) that would otherwise interrupt the natural process of cure. The scepticism that prevails respecting a cure for cancer has proceeded, in great part, from the frequent disappointment caused by the utter failure of many highly-praised remedies. But the blame in most of such instances should not be laid altogether on the proposers of these: it ought to be shared by those who adopted remedies that could not reasonably be expected to fulfil what was promised. Their obvious qualities bore no propor¬ tion to their therapeutical pretensions. To say nothing of such a manifest absurdity as the internal and external use of carrots, or repeated leechings, or distilled water, or a system of starva¬ tion, being proposed as a cure of cancer; what could be reason¬ ably expected of many other remedies of more modern use? It is not enough that the proposer of a remedy should assure us that it has been successful in his hands, for he may himself be deceived, but it is requisite that the remedy shall appear fitted to fulfil the rational indications of cure proceeding from a knowledge of the nature of the malady. It ought to have a priori evidence in its recommendation, as well as the evi¬ dence of its proposer’s experience; and it cannot be expected, especially in the present advanced state of our pathological knowledge, that any remedy will be generally adopted that has not both of these circumstances in its favour. The two powerful remedies, forming the principal subject of the following pages, are especially adapted to the nature of the disease in which they are employed. Cancer consists essentially