Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Cancer : its nature and treatment / by John Pattison. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![wy observation lately, has been caused by the iiy'udicioua use of caustics. I shall now quote a few cases extracted from my Case Book. Case LXXXVIL Mrs T.-^23d Feb., 1854. I saw Canoer of Tongue months by previous she felt a slight sore on the edge of the tongue, caused by a decayed tooth, She showed it to her family physician. Dr Barres, who cauterised the tongue frequently with nitrate of silver (lunar caustic.} After each application the size of the sore rapidly increased, and became more painful. The glands of the neck were much enlarged when I saw her, and more than one-half of the tongue was in a state of cancerous ulceration. In this case I gave hopes of being able to check the disease, but she did not return. In all human probability, if the decayed tooth had been extracted, in the first instance, and the mouth cleansed with some simple wash, it would have easily healed, and cancer prevented, and this poor lady’s life might now have been spared. So with the following case. Case CLXXV. Mr C.—This gentleman came to me on the 3d November, 1854. Upon exami- natxon, I found all the tongue extensively diseased and ulcerated, and becoming daily Avorse. Ho had been under the care of Sir Benjamin Brodie, !Mr Hodgson, Mr Shaw, Mr Partridge, and others, and they had touched the tongue daily with a solution of caustic, and at this date I found the submaxillary and cervical glands much enlarged. To these he had been ordered to apply Imtseed poultices, to bring them into a state of ulcefi'ation. So much for the treatment of cancer by surgeons of the present day. One more case. Case CCLIX. ]\Ir K.—I was sent for to see this gentle-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22396263_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
