On the treatment of cancer by congelation and an improved mode of pressure, separately or combined : with an appendix on the use of congelation in inflammatory affections of the uterus / by James Arnott.

  • Arnott, James (James Moncrieff), 1794-1885.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the treatment of cancer by congelation and an improved mode of pressure, separately or combined : with an appendix on the use of congelation in inflammatory affections of the uterus / by James Arnott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in the course of a discussion in the Surgical Society of Paris, on a fatal case of aneurism, that he had abandoned pressure in its treatment, and resorted to the ligature only because he had not access to a proper compressor.* M. Lebert says that the interposition of mechanical skill is not required in applying pressure in cancer. This opinion may account for the low estimate he has formed of its value ; but he might assert, with as much reason, that the circulation through an aneurism could be as well retarded by twisting a rope round the limb as by Carte’s compressor, or that a leg may be amputated by an axe as well as by a knife and a saw. It is not always from ignorance of principles that want of success in medicine pro¬ ceeds, but from incapacity to carry them into effect. Having minutely described, in a separate treatise, the construction and management of the current apparatus, by which a perfectly uniform temperature, appropriate to the condition of the part, may be maintained for any length of time, and be conjoined with an appropriate amount of equal pressure,! I shall not now enter upon the subject further than to state, for the information of those who are vet unacquainted with its principle, that the apparatus consists essentially of a waterproof bag or bladder, to which two long flexible tubes are attached, in order that a constant stream of water, of the required temperature, may be passed through it, the pressure on the tumour being, at the same time, regulated with the greatest nicety by the height of the reservoir of water. I * L’Union Medical©. December 28th. t On Indigestion ; with an account of an improved mode of regu¬ lating the temperature in various diseases. J A cushion with one tube for filling and emptying it at intervals, is a simple form of the apparatus, but it does not answer nearly so well.