OUR NEW SKIN AND CANCER HOSPITAL. 



99 



ter performed by those who were familiar with this branch of practice, 

 and who were operating daily in their own special department. For 

 this purpose a gynaecologist M-as added to the service, who should have 

 charge of cases of internal cancer in females. Inasmuch as this class 

 forms quite a large proportion of all the cases occurring in females, 

 and the disease may at times prove very troublesome, a separate ward 

 was set apart for the purpose, under the exclusive care of the gy- 

 naecologist, where special treatment could be more satisfactorily car- 

 ried on. 



To meet the further requirements of the hospital, a consulting 

 board of physicians and su.rgeons was formed, containing gentlemen 

 of prominence in various departments of medicine, in order that the 

 best advice might be obtained in cases affecting the eye, ear, throat, 

 etc., and in matters of general medical importance. A pathologist was 

 also added to aid in the study of disease. 



In the consideration of the subject of the association of cancer and 

 skin-diseases in the same institution, it must be remembered that it is 

 against common medical precedent to have a hospital devoted to a single 

 disease, such as cancer. The tendency of specialism is to become too 

 narrowed, to fix too much attention upon one single subject or portion of 

 the body, to the exclusion of others which may and generally do have 

 the utmost relative importance. When, from studying or practicing a 

 special branch of medicine, one comes to confine the attention to a sin- 

 gle disease, the danger is increased manifold. Those who have hereto- 

 fore claimed to devote their exclusive attention to cancer have been 

 mainly found among the class of quacks who prey upon the credulity 

 and ignorance of suffering humanity. Cancer, to be studied and treated 

 scientifically, requires to be still kept where it belongs, one disease out 

 of others of the same class. The London Cancer Hospital, the only 

 one of its kind, as far as we know, would undoubtedly have been the 

 means of much greater good if it had not been a special institution for 

 a single disease, which from that cause has never had the hearty sup- 

 port of the British medical profession ; its usefulness might have been 

 greatly increased had it either been attached to some other hospital 

 (as, for instance, there is a cancer department attached to the Middle- 

 sex Hospital), or had it received at the same time the many cases of 

 skin-disease which are often confounded with cancer. 



If it be asked why the necessity of including the name cancer in 

 the title of the hospital, it may be answered that only thus is the full 

 scope of the institution made Jcnoicn to the public, and by this means 

 multitudes of persons will be reached, who otherwise would never 

 know that this disease was treated in the institution. As it appears by 

 its recent annual report, the work at the hospital has been steady and 

 useful ; it has been limited, however, by the capacity of the present 

 building and by the limited means at hand for the work. With the 

 establishment of the Country Branch Hospital, which has been con- 



