Cancer : its nature and treatment / by John Pattison.

  • Pattison, John
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

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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    poisonous preparations have been used, but, unfortu- nately, when it destroyed the cancerous cells, it also des- troyed the life of the patient. This I saw exemplified in a case which I attended in New York, in 1841. A lady with cancer of the right breast, which had advanced so far, that I, even in those days, refused to operate (for then, hke every young surgeon, I was fond of using the knife upon all occasions). Upon my refusal to operate, she consulted other surgeons, who gave the same opinion. She then called in an empiric, who applied some arseni- cal paste ] the parts separated and came away rapidly, but in a short time, I think about ten days, when one- half of the disease seemed to be removed, she was seized with symptoms similar to those produced by arsenic taken internally, and died in much agony in a few hours. My preparations, on the other hand, are safe and simple, they can be swallowed vdth impunity, and can be apphed to a healthy sore without bad effects; but when apphed to disease, they immediately attack it, destroying the vita- hty of the cancerous’ cells in the first instance, and then removing them, and not only destroying them from one portion, but also being absorbed into the system, re- moving the pecuhar diathesis for the reproduction of disease that may exist elsewhere. My treatment of the disease is two-fold—to improve Nature of my general system by the most Treatment. nutritious diet, active exercise, when possible, in the open air, and by strict attention to the digesting apparatus; and, at the same time, the apphca- tion to the diseased part of remedies which ‘penetrate the cancerous tissue hy a soH of special action which is limited to it, and by which the subjacent morbid tissue seems struck mth death. Unlike caustics of ;ill lands.