Remarks and practical results of observation on scirrhus and cancer / by Antonio Scarpa ; tr. from the Italian, with an appendix containing an account of a sanguineous tumor of the breast, and some annotations on the text, by James Briggs.

  • Scarpa, Antonio, 1752-1832.
Date:
1822
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks and practical results of observation on scirrhus and cancer / by Antonio Scarpa ; tr. from the Italian, with an appendix containing an account of a sanguineous tumor of the breast, and some annotations on the text, by James Briggs. 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.

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    variety of internal and external specifics and dis- solvents at different times propounded for the cure of this disease, the efficacy of which has never been realized by any subsequent experience. If we permit ourselves to be guided by the facts obtained from an anatomical investigation of the scirrhous tumor, the success of such measures is as little to be an- ticipated on the ground of reason, as of experience; for what rational expectation can be entertained-'of the restitution, or discussion of a part, by internal remedies, the organical structure of which is found to be wholly subverted, and, as it were, disjointed from the general system, any more than of the dispersion of an encysted tumor, or opake lens of the eye by such means? It must be evident that in these instances no othjer means are left us than the absolute removal or destruction of the part by a mechanical operation. In allusion to this truth an eminent writer upon this subject has very forci- bly remarked, Pcrdit Medicina scepe ccgrotos, quos chirjirgia servarepoterat. From the facts here adduced, as well as from others, abundant proof is afforded that there is a period at which the removal of the diseased part may be effected with the fullest assurance of suc- cess. The determination of this important fact be- comes therefore of the highest consequence, and