Practical observations on cancer / by the late John Howard.
- Howard, John, Fellow of the College of Surgeons
- Date:
- 1811
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Practical observations on cancer / by the late John Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![totally impossible is it to obtain the like inflam- matory and suppurative aids in scirrhus and cancer! This case was literally a milk-abscess ; with sin- gular and important circumstances indeed, but influenced by a preceding gestation. Case 34.]—A married woman, aged 34, had a scirrhus in one breast, when pregnant, which in- creased with great rapidity during gestation, so that at the time of her delivery her breast was of a monstrous size. She was delivered of a dead child. I did not see her until a fortnight after de- liverv, and then the breast was in a state of mor- tification, and exceedingly offensive. By support- ing her with wine, bark, and opium, and by the frequent application of antiseptic fomentations and poultices, she recovered strength enough to undergo the removal of the whole breast, which was not adherent, and without any enlargement of the axillary glands. The sore healed, and she re- gained health and strength for a few weeks. But the truce did not last long, for hard tumors arose on the cicatrix, which quickly increased to a great size, and became aggregated, so that the mass equalled in a short time the bulk of the breast be- fore any disease had attacked it,—and it was ori- ginally large. This mass had, for the most part, the true cancerous hue; but, in one part, there was a kind of puffy feel, to a great extent, and a. fluctuation was palpable under the fingers. The](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21458571_0088.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
