OUR NEW SKIN AND CANCER HOSPITAL. 97 



appear on and beneath the skin, and which may at times very closely 

 simulate cancer, if such a one is not more likely to recognize and 

 treat the disease successfully than one who takes the single disease 

 cancer for treatment without being acquainted Avith other appar- 

 ently similar affections ? If the dermatologist is not competent to 

 care for cancer, under whose province does it specially fall ? It must 

 be remembered that there is nothing peculiar in the treatment of can- 

 cer, and that there is perhaps no regular physician in this country who 

 can be said to stand distinctly pre-eminent in the knowledge of its 

 nature and treatment : it is the quacks who are mainly known in 

 connection with cancer. 



Cancer is described and treated of in the books on diseases of the 

 skin, and is constantly exhibited and lectured upon in the public clin- 

 ics on diseases of the skin. In many instances cancer attacks the skin 

 alone, and in many more instances it appears first on or just beneath 

 the skin, and afterward affects other organs. The cases of skin-can- 

 cer, which are often terribly destructive, constantly fall under the 

 care of the dermatologist, and are most frequently sent to him in con- 

 sultation and for treatment by other physicians. 



By the union of cancer with skin-diseases in the same institu- 

 tion, many persons may be led to seek relief long before the case would 

 be recognized as cancer either by the patient or by many physicians ; 

 and thus the disease may often be arrested very early in its course, 

 when wrong and harmful treatment or neglect may allow the disease 

 to spread until it is too late to hope fcr any permanently good results 

 from treatment. Of this many cases in proof could be cited. 



Many individuals would be inclined to go to an institution which 

 treats skin-diseases in conjunction with cancer, when they would be 

 unwilling to admit that they had cancer ; as a rule, the disease is kept 

 secret as long as possible. There would also be less fear of a surgical 

 operation connected with such an institution than in one specially de- 

 voted to cancer alone. It often happens that patients who are afflicted 

 with true cancer refuse to have a surgical operation performed, either 

 at all, or until, after long suffering, they are led to it as a last resort, 

 when it is too late. Such patients will often submit to treatment by 

 caustics, which in certain cases yield most excellent results. In skin- 

 cancer the method by caustics is often to be preferred to operations by 

 the knife, the results being rather more sure, and the scar often much 

 less disfiguring. Such cases certainly are best cared for by the derma- 

 tologist, who daily has to do with applications soothing or caustic to 

 the skin. 



If the future offers any hope for the real cure or prevention of can- 

 cer, is it not in the way of careful and patiently conducted experi- 

 ments with diet, drugs, etc. ? Who is better fitted for the study of 

 cancer as a disease than the dermatologist, who has devoted his atten- 

 tion to the study and management of the system as influenced by such 



TOL. XXV. — 7 



