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CHAPTEE XIII. 



CANCER OF THE LIVER. 



HAVING now disposed of the inflammatory and non- 

 inflammatory diseases of the liver ; those which result 

 from mal-nutrition of its tissues : and those which arise 

 from faulty secretions : there now remains for our con- 

 sideration those which consist of some growth which 

 becomes obnoxious to the normal structure of the organ < 

 Foremost among the members of this class is CANCER ; 

 which, according to the most carefully collected statistics j 

 is found more frequently in the liver than any other 

 organ in the body. Indeed,' no serious disease of the 

 liver is, in this country particularly and among that 

 class of the community who have not drunk hard so 

 frequent as cancer. 



In some instances the liver is the only organ impreg- 

 nated with the germs of cancer, but far oftener the 

 formation of cancerous tumours in it is consequent of 

 the deposit of cancer in some other part of the body, 

 more especially the stomach and the mammae. 



HISTORICALLY. Cancer of the liver was not clearly 

 defined from other tumours of that gland, till the early 

 part of the present century. It is, however, worthy of 

 note that cancer of the external organs, particularly the 

 mammae and scrotum, was clearly recognised as far 

 back as the era of Hippocrates. We have in the forty- 



