Orobanche Virginiana. 35 
sylvania and Virginia, that this Orobanche formed the principal part, 
if not the whole, of Martin’s powder. It was even said, that Martin, 
schirrous and cancerous tumours, the knife should always be preferred to the caustic. - 
In cancerous ulcers attended with a scrophulous or a bad habit of body, such particu- 
larly as have their seat in the neck, in the breasts of females, and in the axillary glands, 
it can only protract the patient’s misery. Most of the cancerous sores cured by Dr. 
Martin were seated on the nose, or cheeks, or upon the surface or extremities of the 
body. It remains yet to discover a cure for cancers that taint the fluids, or infect the 
whole lymphatic system. his cure I apprehend must be sought for in diet, or in the 
long use of some internal medicine. 
«‘ To pronounce a disease incurable, is often to render it so. The intermitting fever, 
if left to itself, would probably prove frequently, and perhaps more speedily fatal than 
cancers. And as cancerous tumours and sores are often neglected, or treated impro- 
perly by injudicious people, from an apprehension that they are incurable, (to which 
the frequent advice of physicians « to let them alone,” has no doubt contributed) per- 
haps the introduction of arsenic into regular practice as a remedy for cancers, may in- 
vite to a more early application to physicians, and thereby prevent the deplorable cases 
that have been mentioned, which are often rendered so by delay or unskilful manage- 
ment. 
«©4, It is not in cancerous sores only that Dr. Martin’s powder has been found to do 
service, In sores of all kinds, and from a variety of causes, where they have been at- 
tended with fungous flesh or callous edges, I have used the doctor’s powder with ad- 
vantage. | sldador 
«¢ 1 flatter myself that I shall be excused in giving this detail of a quack medicine, 
when the society reflect that it was from the inventions and temerity of quacks, that 
physicians have derived some of their most active and useful medicines.” Trans. Amer. 
Phil. Soc. vol. 2. p. 212. 
