TREATMENT OF DISEASES. 271 



times; but when small, they are not productive of much inconvenience. But 

 if they become large, they give rise to symptoms both troublesome and dan 

 gerous. There is violent bearing down pain, discharges of blood, or of fetid 

 dark-colored matter from the vagina, pain or difficulty of making water, 

 irritation of the rectum, and a frequent desire to go to stool. When verj 

 large, the polypus hangs out from the passage. If the disease be not relieved, 

 the pains become more violent, the constitution is affected, and the continual 

 discharge greatly weakens the patient. , 



Treatment. — As the patients themselves cannot distinguish tumors frotX^ 

 other diseases producing similar symptoms, their existence must be ascer- 

 tained by the examination of a physician; and their removal effected by a 

 surgical operation, either by the knife or by ligature, performed by a surgeon 

 well acquainted with the structure and connections of the parts. No internal 

 remedies will do any good till the tumor is removed. When this is accom- 

 plished, the general health is to be improved by proper diet and tonic medicines. 



3. Cancer of the Womb. — This, when in a state of ulceration, con- 

 stitutes one of the most deplorable diseases which can alflict humanity. Cancel 

 of the womb most generally attacks at the decline of life, though not exclu- 

 sively so. At first the patient has an uneasy feeling of weight at the lowei 

 part of the belly, with heat or itching. Afterwards shooting pains occur; 

 then a pain, giving a gnawing burning sensation, seems fixed in the region of 

 tlie womb. Tliis pain is attended by the discharge of ill-colored, sharp mat- 

 ter, which irritates and corrodes the neighboring parts. As the disease con- 

 tinues, almost every function of the body becomes disordered. Sickness and 

 vomiting comes on, the bowels are torpid and irregular, hectic fever, and 

 great emaciation ensue, and the spirits are dejected and desponding. Swell- 

 ings of various glands, and watery swellings of the limbs, not unfrequently 

 occur. Symptoms resembling those of the early stages of cancer, may arise 

 from other complaints in the womb, as from polypus growths; the nature of 

 the disease should therefore be, if possible, ascertained at an early period, that 

 the one may be removed, and the other kept from rapid advancement and 

 ulceration, so far as we are able. Cancer in the womb appears to begin with 

 a thickening and hardness of that organ; which we suspect when there are 

 pains in the thighs and back, a bearing down when the patient is using exer- 

 cise, and occasional discharge of clotted blood. 



Treatment.— Of the nature of cancer of the womb, we are as ignorant 

 as of cancer in any other part of the body, and when the disease is estab-. 

 lished. we are as destitute of any remedy. In the periods of deplorable suffer, 

 ing which terminate the life of the patient, we can do little more than palliate 

 symptoms; and the whole tribe of narcotic medicines have been brought into 

 requisition on such occasions. Opium, belladonna, hemlock, and various 

 others have been tried, and failed Mercury, in every shape, is absolutely 

 pernicious in cancer. 



The melancholy distress to which patients are reduced by cancer of the 

 womb, disposes the minds both of themselves and their friends to listen witb 



