Page images
PDF
EPUB

shall copy. He says, "Hard, selenitic, and calcareous waters have been given out by respectable observers for a cause of scrofula. M. de Luc, for instance (Lettres, I. 17), remarks, that where he has found incrusting or petrifying springs, there the people were scrofulous." The following passage is anonymous: "Quod vere assertum, licet ad strumas potissimum endemias pertineat, nullus tamen dubito tales aquas etiam diatheseos scrofulosæ evolutionem promovere, malumque augere posse. Gottingæ scrofulæ frequentissimæ sunt; aquæ vero ibidem scaturientes calcareis particulis insigniter abundant."

But though the facts be granted, there appears an error in the mode of conceiving the operation of impure water. As I have said, impure water does not cause scrofula specifically, but impure water excites and brings into action the diseased propensities of the constitution, whatever they may be, which propensities, but for the application of this morbific power, might have continued dormant and quiescent.

These truths will, perhaps, be more evident by considering the particulars of the following case. I have already brought it forward as a proof of the quickness with which an ulcerated surface feels the substitution of pure to common water. The further contemplation of the phenomena enlarged, and, in a measure, corrected the opinions I had formed when I published the former facts concerning it.

CASE XI.

Scrofulous Ulcer of the Arm.

I HAVE noticed, at p. 170 of my "Reports on Cancer," a lad named John Milner, a miserable object from an inveterate scrofula. I have there described the case. I shall here, therefore, produce only some of the facts which appeared during the course of the treatment.

Under the regimen

This lad had a large ulcer on his arm. (which was undertaken October 19, 1808), on November 31st this ulcer ceased to discharge, and in a week or two more it cicatrized. But during the following year the cicatrix often gave way, the part became sore, and again discharged, and in a few days again healed. The same event took place in Feb⚫ruary, 1810, after which time the sore healed completely, and

This state of the glands appeared occasioned by a diseased state of the scalp, on which there were several sores and scabs. It extended in some measure to the eye and eyelids. More than once, about this period, they inflamed, and the eyelids tumefied so much as. to close, for a time, the eyes.

The regimen had upon this boy the same effect as on the last subject. The ulcers were quickly dried up, and they soon began to cicatrize. In half a year, the boy was able to leave off all the coverings about his neck; and all the ulcers were completely healed, except that which had been so deep. In two or three more months, this became well also; and nothing remained but a redness about the parts. The scabs, however, continued upon the scalp. They, no doubt, afterward came off, but when I cannot exactly say.

This boy was very refractory, and discontented with the restraints imposed upon him. At the end of the twelvemonth, therefore, the regimen was given up. The boy, however, continued well, as I saw, at least a year and a half after, since which time I have lost sight of him.

It

Under these circumstances, it is probable that these ulcerations would have got well under common regimen. But it was evident that the cure was accelerated by the treatment. can hardly be doubted that the disease of the glands was occasioned by the condition of the scalp; and it could not have been expected that they would become sound, before the integuments had recovered. But the fact was otherwise. I would not, however, infer more from this case than, first, that it shows evidently the influence of the pure water on an ulcerated surface; and secondly, that a full diet of animal food and fermented liquors, which is commonly enjoined in such cases, is, to say the least, unnecessary.

I cannot omit this opportunity of paying a small tribute of respect and gratitude to the memory of Dr. Garthshore. He was, at this time, the oldest member on the college list resident in London. To me he was wholly unknown. At a time when I was struggling in vain to obtain a few cases suited to my object; when, from the gentleman to whom I had shown the facts concerning cancer, I received, after the labor of years, a cold and reluctant, assent I cannot call it, but withholding of contradiction to the conclusions which were pressed upon me; when another practitioner, a physician of great employment, with whom I had lived from early life in fraternal familiarity, preferred putting an end to an intimacy of five-andtwenty years to supplying me with a single pauper; at this

time, this upright, respectable, and benevolent old ma, came to me, sought my acquaintance, encouraged me to proceed in my inquiries; told me how much the elder Heberden would have been pleased with them; and promised me every assistance in his power. And he neglected no proper opportunity of furthering my views. The very last act of his life was an attempt (it proved an abortive one) to serve me; and, as he believed, by serving me, to promote the diffusion of useful knowledge. Thus did he preserve to the last breath the principles which had guided him through life: urbanity, liberality, integrity, the love of truth, and an ardent desire to contribute toward the welfare of mankind, and diminish the mass of human misery. Such were the rules of his conduct and leading traits of his character.

I am not without obligations to other individuals, which I may here, not improperly, acknowledge. Mr. Crowther procured me more than one case of cancer. Mr. Platt, unsolicited, did the same thing. These cases were such as might have led to useful conclusions, had the patients themselves been tractable. Dr. Latham, also, the present worthy president of the college of physicians, had the goodness to recommend to me a subject laboring under a disease of this kind; but it was too far gone to afford any chance of relief.

CASE XIII.

Remarks on Cancer, with a Case.

I FEEL it proper to premise a few remarks to the case which is next to be related.

It has become less necessary for me to bring before the public many additional observations on this disease, as Mr. Abernethy has done me the justice to recommend the method of treatment I proposed to the trial of surgeons, to whose care these cases commonly devolve.* I have reason to believe that

* The following is taken from Mr. Abernethy's Surgical Observations on Tumors, p 93: "There can be no subject which I think more likely to interest the mind of a surgeon than that of an endeavor to amend and alter the state of a cancerous constitution. The best timed and best conducted operation brings with it nothing but disgrace, if the diseased propensities of the constitution are active and powerful. It is after an operation that, in my opinion, we are most particularly incited to regulate

it has been tried, under the inspection of competent judges, and therefore of this, as of every other proposal, time will ultimately decide the merits. At present, however, with regard to the experience of others I am very imperfectly informed.

I do not wish to conceal, that the testimony which Mr. Abernethy gave to the accuracy of my statements (as far as he was concerned) was given at my own request. For it is a fact, that Mr. Abernethy was so struck with the effect of the distilled water, in the ease of cancer that he put into my hands, the constitution, lest the disease should be revived or renewed by its disturbance. In addition to that attention to tranquillize and invigorate the nervous system, and keep the digestive organs in as healthy a state as possible, which I have recommended in the first volume, I believe general experience sanctions the recommendation of a more vegetable, because less stimulating, diet, with the addition of so much milk, broth, and eggs as seem necessary to prevent any declension of the patient's strength.

“Very recently. Dr. Lambe has proposed a method of treating cancerous diseases, which is wholly dietetic. He recommends the adoption of a strict vegetable regimen, to avoid the use of fermented liquors, and to substitute water, purified by distillation, in the place of common water used as a beverage, and in all articles of diet in which common water is used, as tea. soups, etc. The grounds upon which he founds his opinion of the propriety of this advice, and the prospects of benefit which it holds out, may be seen in his Reports on Cancer,' to which I refer my readers. "My own experience on the effects of this regimen is of course very limited, nor does it authorize me to speak decidedly on the subject. But I think it right to observe, that in one case of carcinomatous ulceration in which it was used, the symptoms of the disease were, in my opinion, rendered more mild, the erysipelatous inflammation, surrounding the ulcer, was removed, and the life of the patient was, in my judgment, considerably prolonged. The more minute details of the fact constitute the sixth case of Dr. Lambe's Reports.

“It seems to me very proper and desirable that the powers of the regimen recommended by Dr. Lambe should be fairly tried, for the following

reasons:

“ Ist. Because I know some persons who, while confined to such diet, have enjoyed very good health; and I have further known several persons, who did try the effects of such a regimen, declare that it was productive of considerable benefit. They were not indeed affected with cancer, but they were induced to adopt a change of diet to allay a state of nervous irritation, and correct disorders of the digestive organs, upon which medicine had but little influence.

"2dly. Because it appears certain, that in general the body can be perfectly nourished by vegetables.

3dly. It seems sufficiently ascertained, that diseases have in some persons been excited by water, and therefore it is desirable that whatever is used should be made as pure as possible.

“4thly. Because all great changes of constitution are more likely to be effected by alterations of diet and modes of life than by medicine.

5thly. Because it holds out a source of hope and consolation to the patient, in a disease where medicine is known to be unavailing, and surgery affords no more than a temporary relief."

that he made upon it this pointed and remarkable declaration: "I cannot be insensible," he said, "to the effect of this treatment. Whether it will cure the disease or not, I cannot tell; but I can have no doubt but that it will prevent it."

Mr. Abernethy, in consequence of what he saw, ordered the distilled water, at this time, in some other cases. One was a case of cancer of the rectum. It was a desperate case, in the very last stage of the disease; and the patient soon died. But the sufferer declared that it gave him much ease, and that it was the only thing from which he had appeared to receive benefit. This declaration, or something tantamount to it, Mr. Abernethy told me, with the addition, "that he should at all times be willing to acknowledge it."

This leads me to mention the circumstances, which induced me to be more sanguine with regard to the hoped-for result of cases, that were very far gone, than was justifiable by the event. I do this the more willingly, in order to guard others against a similar sort of deception, which will certainly occur again, under the same circumstances. What I allude to is as

follows:

In cases where the vital powers are greatly reduced, the evident change induced by a change of regimen, and the apparent advantage of such a change, is incalculably greater than where the vital powers are more perfect, and where, consequently, the immediate danger of the patient is much less. This fact has appeared in a great variety of examples. I will cite a few that were remarkable.

In a case of carcinoma of the mamma, a middle-aged woman adopted the regimen; and the consequence was, that the pain, which had been constant and severe for many months, was relieved, and almost removed in one fortnight. Such a circumstance could not but cause great delight, and excite hopes that much good might be done in a short time. But these hopes proved fallacious. The woman died in less than six months; being cut off, as I judged from correspondence, by a peripneumonic affection.

Another woman, laboring under ancites, received great, and almost instantaneous, benefit from the regimen. The abdomen began quickly to diminish in bulk, and for more than three months she appeared to improve in health daily. But then the benefit ceased, new symptoms supervened, and in less than another month she died.

A little boy of about four years of age, who was epileptic, was made to try the same plan of diet. The effect was highly

« PreviousContinue »