Volume 1

The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer.

Date:
1835-37
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of John Hunter / edited by James F. Palmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    often destroy the cancerous disposition and render the sore more healthy. Sometimes the quantity of arsenic must be increased ; and when it gets better, less must be used. When the cancerous disposition is too strong to he removed by this means, we must destroy the parts; and for this there are two modes: 1st, by destroying the life of it; 2ndly, by an operation. The destruction of all the cancerous parts is the intention in both : in destroying locally any specific disease which has the power of its own increase, the whole must be destroyed. That first method I divide into two : 1st, the power which life has of destroying itself, by producing an action it cannot support; 2ndly, by chemical effects. The second method is by an operation ; but the first method is not so exten- sive as the second, for with the knife we can go where the other cannot reach; so that the first can only be employed where the disease is ex- posed and circumscribed. When lying on a nerve or artery, the dead- ening method has the recommendation of safety. The first mode produces too much action, as would appear from the effect of arsenic, which does not act chemically, but produces inflamma- tion, and probably weakness also ; so that the diseased parts will be de- stroyed by it, while the sound parts will remain alive : and this makes it preferable to caustic, which is not only too violent but deadens the sound parts as well as the unsound. Plunkett’s medicine is made as follows : crowsfoot, 3 drachms and 2 scruples; dogfennel dried, 1 drachm; crude sulphur, 2 drachms and a half; white arsenic, 5 drachms: beat in a mortar, and form into a powder: one or two drachms of which are to be mixed with the yolk of an egg, and being spread on a piece of bladder to be applied so as to cover the sore*. Arsenic alone would produce too violent an inflammation, and destroy the sound parts by mortification. The second, or chemical mode, is by caustics, by which life is de- stroyed by the combination of the caustic with the parts it comes in contact with, making but little distinction between those which are sound and those which are unsound ; but these cannot be used very ex- tensively, for obvious reasons. The second mode, or Extirpation.—In considering the propriety of this we must often be more careful than in the above modes ; and as the knife may be extended further, so the diseases may be more complicated than in the other modes. We should first consider if the whole disease can be safely extirpated, and if so, the operation is proper. Some can- not be extirpated safely, as when in the extremities; but in such cases the whole limb may be safely removed, which should in doubtful cases * [Any preparation containing so much arsenic must be exceedingly unsafe and dangerous.]