The diseases of the breast, and their treatment / by John Birkett.

  • John Birkett
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diseases of the breast, and their treatment / by John Birkett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    strong, and of good general health, showed to me a tumor in the left breast. Her last child was born four months since, and she has continued to suckle the infant, until ten days since, with the affected breast. She first felt the lump about six weeks after her confinement. The left breast, even before marriage, was always rather larger than the right. She had not used one gland more than the other. The superior half of the left breast was indurated, and it began on the inner side of, and rather below the nipple. The nipple was very sore during her pregnancy; it is large and full, and around it a very deep furrow exists. The progress of the disease has been very slow, and she has never felt any pain worth speaking of. A firm, doughy induration, which blended with the tissue of the gland, was felt near the nipple; under the areola were two. soft points, probably distended ducts, for the secretion could be pressed from the nipple. No discoloration of the skin existed, but there was fulness of the infra-clavicular region. The lymphatics leading to the axilla were indurated, but the glands were normal. The whole breast was strapped up, and then bandaged, leaving the nipple exposed; tonics were administered, and after about a month fluctuation became distinct. The pus was allowed to escape, and after the expiration of a week or two the part was quite well. Case XX.—A married woman, set. 24, and mother of one child, ] 7 months old, and which infant she had suckled for about three months, applied to me on account of a swelling in the left breast. Six weeks since she perceived a hardness under- neath the nipple. She did not experience any pain therein, and pressure was endurable. She had never suckled with the left breast, the nipple being imperfect \ it had been often full and knotty, but this condition was dispersed by friction. When I saw her the lower and outer fourth of the gland was indurated, solid, and painless on pressure. The nipple was