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.

  • Parker, Langston, 1805?-1871.
Date:
1856
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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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    address you on a branch of surgery of vast importance, and to which I have for some time past directed much attention, viz., “ The Modern Surgical Therapeutics of Cancerous Diseases,” and to inquire what is the exact position in practical surgery which “ the-thera- peutics of cancer now occupiesin fact, I shall hardly go so far. as to consider the whole surgical treatment of cancer, but only one branch of it, and that is, “ the treatment of cancerous diseases by caustics or by enucleation,” a subject to which little attention has been paid in Great Britain, at least, systematically, although there are many isolated cases recorded, as I shall presently show, which point to this mode of treatment (under certain circum- stances) as valuable, etfective, and safe. On the continent of Europe this practice is fast gaining ground, and many systematic works have been pub- lished within the last eight or ten years on the effects of different caustics in the cure of cancer, whilst some French hospital surgeons have devoted courses of Clinical Lectures to this branch of surgical in- quiry.* The three modes at present known and practised amongst surgeons for the cure of cancer are three: ablation or excision, compression, and the destruction or enucleation of the disease by escharotic or caustic substances. I shall not occupy your valuable time by any allusion to the first mode * “Lcpons Clmiqucs sur Ics Affcctious Cancdrcuses, profess6cs a I’Hopital Cochin.” Par M. le Dr. Maisonneuvc. Paris. 1852—1851.