'Leave it alone,' be as much repudiated in cancer as it would be in tubercle; and then we shall not have the pain of seeing our patients tortured in mind and body by the false promises and useless, if not injurious, performances of unscrupulous pretenders, to whose tender mercies such a sentence inevitably consigns them. Sarah S., aged sixty-three. Married; three children; did not suckle them. Mother died of cancer uteri. Is of placid temperament, thin, pale, and badly nourished. A tumour appeared in the right breast two years before admission, April 14, 1864. She had received no injury to the breast. When first seen the tumour was the size of a plover's egg, and subject to occasional stabbing pains. It gradually increased and became very painful, until July 1, when she was made an inpatient, and placed upon full diet with stout. The medicine given was hydrochloric acid, tincture of bark, and cod-liver oil. The tumour was covered with the usual leather plaster. She left the hospital in September greatly improved in general health, free from pain, and the tumour reduced to the size of a hazel-nut. She was desired to continue the same treatment, and come occasionally to the out-patients' room.-November 3: continues equally well, tumour still diminishing. Pergat.-1865, January 5: the tumour has quite disappeared, general health good. The breast is now in that flabby atrophied condition natural to her age and condition. In February she caught a bad cold, and had bronchitis, which reduced her considerably. For the purpose of giving her good nourishment I admitted her again to the hospital, and she soon recovered. The tumour remained quite in the same atrophied condition. Sarah G., aged fifty-one; a pale, nervous, anæmic woman. Married; suckled three children. Several members of her family phthisical. Catamenia ceased in 1859. In 1851 a tumour made its appearance in the left breast, and gave her much pain. It continued to increase until it was as large as an orange, and then gradually wasted. Having become adherent to the skin, a puckering was produced as the tumour subsided. When first seen, July 9, 1863, the adherent skin was slightly ulcerated. Calamine cerate was used, and the ulcer healed. She has taken hydrochloric acid and bark, tincture of iron with phosphoric acid, and chloric ether ; and recently, cod-liver oil. The tumour has quite disappeared; and the treatment now pursued, tincture of iron and cod-liver oil, is partly prophylactic and partly directed to the still somewhat anæmic condition of the patient. She is able to perform all her household duties. Jane L., aged fifty-nine, of excitable temperament. Married; suckled two children. Mother and sister died of phthisis. Admitted an out-patient, September 25, 1862. Four years previously a small lump appeared in the right breast. It gradually increased and ultimately suppurated. The nipple was destroyed, and the whole breast was atrophied. Upon admission, a dry scab covered the ulcer. This was removed by a poultice, and the wound dressed with calamine cerate in the day, a carrot poultice being applied at night. The medicine given was hydrochloric acid with tincture of bark. The ulcer healed in less than three months, and she remained well until January 1864, when she suffered a great grief by the death of her husband, and the ulcer opened again. The same remedies were employed, and in six weeks it was again healed. In June, owing to a continuance of mental excitement, there was a slight return of the ulceration. In September it was healed, and she continued pretty well up to December 29, her last visit previous to going to reside in Cornwall. Ann B., aged thirty-six. Single; pale, leucophlegmatic person. Catamenia regular. A hard tumour appeared in the left breast in September 1860. It increased gradually, was accompanied by lancinating intermittent pains, and at the early part of 1862 began to diminish in size. It then attached itself to the skin, which became puckered, the whole breast sharing in the atrophy. She remains under observation to the present time, June 1865, and the tumour appears to have entirely vanished. The treatment has been principally tincture of iron with chloric ether, and recently cod-liver oil in addition; the part being covered with leather plaster. A thin, fair, placid Married, but no chilAt the cessation of the Eliza A., aged forty-eight. woman, of cheerful disposition. dren. An aunt died of phthisis. menses in the early part of 1859, a hard lump came in the left breast. She had received no injury. On her admission as an out-patient, August 21, 1860, the tumour was the size of a hen's egg, very hard and incompressible, attended with severe lancinating pains. For the first two years she was seen indiscriminately by all the surgeons of the hospital, and each had a share in the treatment; according to a practice which then prevailed, but which has since been altered. She then came under my exclusive care, and my first note of her |