Remarks and practical results of observation on scirrhus and cancer / by Antonio Scarpa ; tr. from the Italian, with an appendix containing an account of a sanguineous tumor of the breast, and some annotations on the text, by James Briggs.

  • Scarpa, Antonio, 1752-1832.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks and practical results of observation on scirrhus and cancer / by Antonio Scarpa ; tr. from the Italian, with an appendix containing an account of a sanguineous tumor of the breast, and some annotations on the text, by James Briggs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    17/82 (page 3)
    have not been hitherto authenticated, much less confirmed, by rational experience. The whole, or at least certainly some of the most remarkable of the inucous glands, as the sub- lingual and the tonsillary, are likewise known to be exempt from a primitive scirrhous and cancer- ous taint. With regard to the latter of these, the large hard tonsil improperly termed scirrhous, every experienced surgeon is aware that it may be removed, portion after portion, and even gradually destroyed, by the repeated applications of caustic, • without any fear of its degenerating into cancer by such means. The thyroid gland, whether we are disposed to regard it as a lymphatic or mucous gland, never becomes 'primarily scirrhous or can- cerous. And if in any instance this glandular body has been found eroded by cancerous ulceration, it has only been in consequence of its contiguity with the trachea or oesophagus affected by that disorder. Whenever consequently one or more of the lymphatic or any of the mucous glands already mentioned are found to be infected with cancer, it takes place only by the cancerous ichor being conveyed to them by means of the absorbent ves- sels, or by the infiltration of the morbid poison with- in the cellular tissue connecting the lymphatic gland with the cancerous part. In the next place, scirrhus and cancer are never B 2