The diagnosis of surgical cancer / by John Zacharias Laurence.

  • John Zachariah Laurence
Date:
1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The diagnosis of surgical cancer / by John Zacharias Laurence. 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.

    78/164 (page 62)
    deposits. The microscopic characters of the tuberculous matter were well marked. Heart: Some indurations at the edge of the mitral valve and in the line of attachment of one of the segments of the aortic valve. Bicuspid and pulmonary valves normal. No hyper- trophy or dilatation; muscular substance firm. Liver: Portal system congested. Contained a small earthy nodule. Kidneys: Left one of a deep venous hue, with a small cyst in its substance. Right one healthy. Spleen: Normal. Intestines: Not opened; much narrowed in calibre. Another fact worthy of attention is the different sus- ceptibilities different organs have for the development of the two morbid states. Thus original cancer of the lungs is very rare, original tuberculosis of the lungs very common; original cancer of the liver is not un- common, original tuberculosis of the liver is rare. And these facts may be multiplied for several other organs. I have long been struck, when listening to the melan- choly tales of cancerous patients, how often one hears that some of their relatives have died of consumption. Is there any connexion between the two diseases ] Are they in any way, as it were, vicarious to one another % If they were, the great rarity of their both occurring together would be at once explained. However, the materials for answering these questions are as yet too scanty and vague to allow of any positive conclusions. All I will say is, that of 40 patients, the subject of scirrhus or encephaloid, 15 knew of one or more blood- relations having died of phthisis. I all but pass over the exciting causes C?) of cancerous tumors: their influence is, in our present state of know- ledge, much too equivocally established, even generally, much less specifically, to avail us in forming an opinion.