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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    relief of long duration. The relation between this remedy and various forms of inflammation may, to a certain extent, illustrate its action in cancer. If congelation, of a certain degree only, be used in erysipelas of a local nature, in ophthalmia, or in the inflammation of the mouth that is produced by mercury, it arrests the morbid action and completely relieves the attendant pain; but after awhile, the disease returns, and the remedy must be re-applied; If, on the other hand, the temperature employed be lower or longer continued, the inflammation will be at once and permanently removed by it. It is possible that even a continued stream of iced water, or of a saline solution of a few degrees lower temperature, running from a reservoir through a small flexible tube into the vagina, might soon relieve the pain in uterine cancer, but no lasting relief or permanent advantage could be hoped for from such a measure, especially in the more acute cases, or those accompanied with much in¬ flammation.* The combination of pressure with congelation has already been adverted to, as promising great advantage in cancer; and, its use is probably compatible with most things likely to prove beneficial. The regulation of the secretious and the improve¬ ment of the condition of the blood, are important objects of treatment in cases in which opiates have been long employed, or where the patient has suffered from haemorrhage. * In the work which has been already published on the remedial use of a very low temperature, I have stated that “ the term con¬ gelation is used rather to denote the degree of cold capable of congealing the animal fluids than this effect itself.” It is a more convenient name for what it is intended to express than “ anaesthetic temperature,” but not so correct, inasmuch as the latter comprehends both the degree of cold necessary to congeal, and the lesser degree only sufficient to benumb, which however, may be all that, in many cases, is required. Where the influence of the frigorific is required to extend to the deeper seated textures, actual congelation of the surface will, in addition to any other virtue it may possess, be ob¬ viously useful in facilitating its transmission to these.