On the treatment of cancer by the regulated application of an anæsthetic temperature / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James (James Moncrieff), 1794-1885.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of cancer by the regulated application of an anæsthetic temperature / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on the 25th July, 1849. She is of short stature, thin, of sallow complexion, and about forty-two years of age. She had been lately in St. Thomas’s Hospital on account of the same disease for which she now sought assistance ; and had complained about eighteen months previously to her entering the hospital. Her principal symptoms were frequent and severe paroxysms of pain, chiefly in the back and hips; a profuse and offensive discharge, and occasional haemorrhage, from the vagina; and derangement of the digestive organs. On examination, the neck of the womb was found hard and ulcerated. For six months the usual palliative treatment was pursued— viz., the exhibition of the preparations of opium and the applica¬ tion of leeches. She complained that the opium made her con¬ stantly drowsy and unfit for her occupation as a needlewoman ; and the pain was, notwithstanding its use, occasionally so severe as to oblige her to rise from ^bed and roll on the floor of her room. In January, I determined upon a trial of congelation, having previously made another careful examination of the uterus. The disease had by this time considerably extended: the neck of the womb was now completely destroyed, and there were several warty excrescences in the upper part of the vagina. Congelation was effected by means of a frigorific mixture of two parts of finely-pounded ice and one part of chloride of sodium, introduced through a wide speculum of gutta percha, having the lower part of its upper opening of a cup-like form ; and in order that the temperature might be maintained at the requisite low degree, or about zero of Fahrenheit, the dissolved ice was continuously drawn off by a syphon of peculiar construction. This peculiarity principally consists in a large two-necked bottle being connected with, or constituting part of, the long arm of the syphon ; and the purpose of it is, that a stream of water may continue to flow along this part of the syphon, and keep up the suction at the upper extremity, notwithstanding any interruption in the supply there. A tube of vulcanized india-rubber forms the remaining
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