T^O Not ices respect ing New Books. 



. has proved to he ' capable of impartins; to the fat of animals 

 recently killed a green colour,' and that this very air united 

 >MX\\ ammonia escapes in great abundance rioni cancevouiii^ 

 as well as other malignant ulcers*.'* 



*^ 1 have thus," says our author, ^^ extensively consi'- 

 dered the opinions of Dr. Adams, which, notwithstanding 

 the objections thatoccur, appear to explain the phjenonjena 

 of the disease mor^j satisfactorily than any that fiave yet 

 been ofiered; and I. confess I cannot but agree with him 

 in the fundamental part of his theory, the independent life 

 of cancer ; but my sentiments are somewhat ditferent t'on- 

 cerning ihe part in which that life is resident." 



Mr. Carmichael then proceeds to offer his opinion of 

 cancer as a parasytic animal (a term, we believe, first used 

 by Doctor Adams), This leads to a very interesting history 

 of parasyiic plants and animals, which he traces through all 

 the writings of Darwin, Willdenow, Hunter, atid several 

 others. 



In the succeeding chapter the author enters more parti- 

 cularly into the evidence of the viiaiiiv of cancer, 'i'ite first 

 of these is, that the cancerous substance has no communi- 

 cating vessels with the parts in which it grows, and the in- 

 sensibility of the person in whom it finds a nidus to any 

 injury confined to the cancerous mas?, 2d. Iliat carci- 

 noma arises in parts naturally endued with little life, or 

 which, from their nature, are more inclined to run into 

 decomposition, particularly the organs in each sex subser- 

 vient to generation, after the period is passed in which they 

 can be used for such purposes. 3d. From the fair presump- 

 tion that when suppuration takes place, it is not of the can- 

 cerous subslance Itself, but of the neighbouring parts, which 

 are stimulated to suppuration by the previous death o'i one 

 part of the carcinomatous mass, according to a law first 

 discovered by Mr. Hunter, that a living animal confined 

 within the substance of another animal does not .stimulate 

 to suppuration ; but that the same asiimal when dead sti-. 

 mulates like any other extraneous substance. 4th. '* The 

 origin of carcinoma first commencing in a point — the forma- 

 tion of xiysts ill its texture, containin<i a fluid — those cysts 

 evincing a contractile power, by a forcible ex})ul5ion of their 

 contents on being punctured, are all circumstances which 

 strongly impress the idea that carcinoma is possessed of in- 

 dividual life." Jn this division the auttior enters mucli 



• Experiments and Obccn-ations cu the Ma'.ter of Cancer, hcj hy 

 A. Crawford, M.D. 



jntQ 



