On the cancer of the uterus : being the Harveian Lectures for 1886 / by John Williams.

Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cancer of the uterus : being the Harveian Lectures for 1886 / by John Williams. 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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    must have a clear and exact knowledge of what we mean by cancer; and in order to avoid misunderstand- ing I will explain the meaning I shall attach to the word. I adopt that meaning which is given to it by the pre- vailing school of pathologists, and which appears to me to be the most reasonable, and the most likely to favour the growth of our knowledge of malignant diseases. Cancer, then, is a new growth possessing malignant properties, that is, it possesses the power of invading neighbouring tissues and of reproducing itself in the form of secondary growths in other and distant parts. It is not so very long—not more than forty years— since the term was applied to growths which are now known to be devoid of any malignant properties. Fi- broid tumours of the uterus were then regarded as can- cer, but without good reason. They possess none of the peculiar properties, anatomical or clinical, which are possessed by the more serious affection. The distinction between growths which possess malignant properties and those which do not possess them, is to be made by two kinds of observations— those made at the bedside, and those made in the laboratory. Clinical observation alone is sufficient to decide whether a growth be malignant or not, provided one condition is fulfilled—that is, time is not stinted. Weeks or months of watching will solve the question ; but examination of the growth by means of the microscope enables us to solve it at once. All malignant growths, however, are not cancer, and clinical observation is, as a rule, not equal to making the distinction between the different kinds of malignant diseases. Here the work of the laboratory, and above all that done by the help of the microscope comes to
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