BOTANIC PHYSICIAN. 
pose, a sharp ed perforator of a proper size, should be entered 
on the other side of the sore, exactly opposite, and contiguous to the 
under extremity of the upper part of the duct; and being carried some- 
y, it must in this manner be made to penetrate the mouth. 
\is being done, a piece of leaden probe, nearly the size of the perfo- 
, should be introduced along the course of the newly formed open- 
‘ing, and retained in till the sides of it become callous ; when the lead 
_ being withdrawn, the end of the duct should be drawn into contact with 
the opening, by means of a piece of adhesive plaster, and kept in this 
tuation till a firm union has taken place. After taking out the 
, it will forward the cure, to make the end_of the duct and of the 
newly formed opening raw, with the edge of a lancet, before bring- | 
‘ing them together ‘Till a firm adhesion takes place between them, 
the patient should be directed to live upon spoon meat ; to speak | 
ttle or none, and to make as little exertion with his jaws as pos | 
© Inthis manner, sores, which would otherwise continue to discharge 
saliva for life, may be easily healed, with scarcely any mark of their 
having ever existed. : 
CUTTING OUT A CANCEROUS BREAST. 
4 
og 
Cancer has been known to attack almost every part of the body; 
but we meet with it more frequently in the breasts of women, than in 
almost any other part. : ae 
In another part of this work, I have entered fully into the consi- 
deration of cancer and its medical treatment. I shall, therefore, com 
fine myself to the description of the operation of taking outa cancer — 
ofthe breast. And in doing this, I would not be’understood as eX- 
pressing my apprebation of this method of curing cancers, particu- 
larly to the extent that it is carried at the present time ; I only shew - 
the manner of doing it, that the student may know how it is done; _ 
ing it to his j eterminé the necessity of ever resort 
€; wherever it is seated, its 
consequences are to be dreaded; More especially, when fixed 00 
one or both of the breasts. Various causes have been assigned for — 
ancer proving more malignant in this situation than in others; but 
‘the obvious reason of it is, that cancers, being very commonly seat 
ed in the glands, and the breast being entirely glandular, cancer 8 
necessarily more apt to form in it than in parts not so extensive. oer 
In every surgical operation, it should be an established maxim, 10 
Save as much sound skin as possible. Such portions of the common 
teguments as are diseased, or that adhere firmly to the parts below, 
ought certainly to be taken away; but it can never be proper to re 
move more than this; for it is now universally known, that the true 
skin is never regenerated ; and when destroyed, that the parts une 
derneath are afterwards covered with thin scarf skin only. This, 
however, is not the only objection to an extensive removal of skin; 
in every operation, where much of it is destroyed, the wound that 
remains is necessarily much more extensive, and the cure, therefore, 
_ More tedious, than when little or perhaps no skin has been take? 
