The treatment of cancerous diseases by caustics : a critical enquiry into the modern therapeutics of cancer : being 'the address in surgery' delivered at Birmingham on the occasion of the 24th annual meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association / by Langston Parker.

  • Samuel William Langston Parker
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treatment of cancerous diseases by caustics : a critical enquiry into the modern therapeutics of cancer : being 'the address in surgery' delivered at Birmingham on the occasion of the 24th annual meeting of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association / by Langston Parker. 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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    amount of prolonged pain they occasion. The chloride of zinc may be applied with a degree of precision unattainable by any other remedy, it destroys the tissues in direct relation with the thickness of the layer of paste applied; and this with a little practice may be calculated to a great nicety, it never runs or fuses, it destroys only those parts which it covers, and these it divides from the surrounding structures as cleanly as though they had been cut Avith a knife. The crust or scab formed by this caustic is hard, dense, and Avhite, there is no sanguineous or other discharge produced by it. The eschar separates at the end of twelve or fourteen days, leaving a clean, healthy, granulating surface underneath. The concentrated mineral acids have lately been much employed as caustics in the treatment of can- cerous diseases. I allude especially to the nitric and sulphuric acids. A set treatise on the use of one of these acids, the nitric, has been published by M. Rivallie, in Avhich monohydrated nitric acid is made into a paste Avith scraped lint or charpie. This M. Rivallie describes as solidified nitric acid. Many successful cases are given by this surgeon of the total and rapid destruction of cancerous groAAdhs by his method. M. Velpeau and M. Maisonneuve speak favourably of this preparation, the latter prefers it mixed Avith asbestos. It is neither so easily under command, nor so destructive as the concentrated sulphuric acid. Concentrated sulphuric acid, made into a paste n
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