The study of experimental cancer : a review.

  • Woglom, William Henry, 1879-1953.
Date:
1913
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The study of experimental cancer : a review. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    He not only separated several of the benign neoplasms (among them ganglion and lipoma) from the maHgnant growths, but described the enlargement of the axillar}- l}Tnph nodes accompanying cancer of the breast, and seemed to be familiar with carcinoma of the Hver and spleen. Nor was he unaware of the serious nature of cancer, for he expressed the opinion that it could be cured only in the first, or indurative stage, counseled ablation of the less maHgnant growths, devised operative measures for removal of carcinoma of the Hp, and extirpated cancer of the breast. Galen,^ who in the second century- elaborated the theories of Hippoc- rates, recognized with his predecessor four cardinal fluids upon whose proportion to one another depended the state of the body. These fluids were blood, mucus, yellow bile (derived from the liver), and black bile fsecreted by the spleen); to the collection in undue amount of the material last mentioned he ascribed the origin of malignant growths. If the bile were sharp and irritating, there arose an ulcerating cancer; if mild, one of the non-ulcerating t}'pe. The spread of the disease was well known to Galen, but. ignorant of the existence of the lymphatics, he beheved that it took place by way of the veins. His therapeutic endeavors were directed particularly toward attaining a diet which should not contain any of the substances productive of black bile, while purging played no unimportant part in the treatment. Con- sidering both procedures of the highest utility, he nevertheless did not entirely neglect surgical inter^-ention, which he conceived, however, to be of secondar}' value only, reasoning that it was illogical to treat a constitutional disease by measures so purely local as surgery. Leonides - was the first investigator wdth courage requisite to dis- card the advice of Hippocrates, never to operate on an ulcerating cancer. He practised with the knife and cautery the most thorough and energetic treatment of carcinoma of the breast, and was the first to appreciate the importance of retraction of the nipple as a diagnos- tic sign. From the time of Leonides, about i8o B.C., until the Renaissance, the art of the physician progressed only to a small degree, if, indeed, it advanced at all; but -^dth the awakened interest in art, Hterature, and science which made this such an eventful period, there was aroused a 1 Wolff, lO. 2 Wolff, 14.