TUMOURS, DEFINED. HI 



been repeatedly proved. First, as recrards tumours, these being probed, the 

 patients have bled to death, with arterial blood. And secondly, in every case 

 of abscess, in proportion as tiiey increase in size, so does the patient's strength 

 invariably diminish. When nature makes an opening to the surface, after 

 iong-protracted illness, the patient is usually so exhausted, and the parts ad 

 jacent rendered so unfit to re-unite, that the strength of the constitution ap- 

 pears to run off at the orifice : life is seldom preserved, health never com- 

 pletely restored. 



Tumours sometimes appear of tolerably large size, that become imJolent, 

 without feeling, and are moveable under the skin. These are caused by the 

 same evil state of the blood, or its vessels, and the inflammation or irritation 

 having ceased at some time or other, the enlargement remains, though the 

 connexion with the system of animal life has long ceased. Although very 

 unsightly, the animal feels little inconvenience from those protuberances: they 

 receive the name of wen, and might be taken off by dividing the skin, and 

 pressing out the wen : it is then to be drawn forth with the forceps, and the 

 healing of the wound is effected by strapping down the skin with adhesive 

 plaster ; the cure is thus said to be effected by the first intention. The usual 

 precautions of taking away the hair, and afterwards keeping the patient's h^ad 

 up for a few days, would of course be adopted. 



The genuine tumour is soft and tender, and is contained in a membranous 

 case, or ccestus, that has been likened to the finger of a glove, or to many of 

 them, when it acquires the distinctive name of fistula. The case, or ccestus, 

 having been formed by the disorder, and matured by heat, acquires strength 

 the longer it is suffered to continue unopposed, seeking its way inwards, until 

 the knife alone can afford relief. At the shoulder the fibrous and membranous 

 construction is exceedingly strong. Look at page 11. Generally speaking, 

 all swellings of a circumscribed nature are tumours. 



Some objections which have been raised against the view I have taken of 

 the origin of this whole series of diseases must not go quite unnoticed here, 

 though I dislike controversy as much as any writer who has gone before me 

 on either side the question. At the very commencement of this book (page 

 59), and without adverting to either set, or indeed thinking at all of the con- 

 troversy, I assigned a reason why the apparently triumphant proof of Mr. 

 White, at page 29, is no proof at all, but the contrary, as to the thickness or 

 viscidity of the blood increasing with the continuance of inflammatory fever. 

 Every writer on this subject allows that the swelling and discharge of matter 

 that frequently occurs after a fever, or inflammation of the whole system, de- 

 notes the crisis or termination of that disorder ; and insists that it must bo 

 considered as but an effort of nature to throw off something that is offensive 

 to the well-being of the animal. The same happens often after "inflamma- 

 tion of the liver" has been reduced ; but this kind of occurrence, though it adds 

 nothing material by way of argument, leads us directly to the point at issue. 

 General inflammation (fever)j it is allowed on all hands, begets something of- 

 fensive, and so does partial or local inflammation of any organ through which 

 the blood passes, particularly of the liver and kidneys, through which the 

 whole mass gets filtered, as it were : and nature's efforts to get rid of this of- 

 fence against her rules are evinced in swelling of the external parts, in the in- 

 flammation thereof, and subsequent escape of the offensive something, where 

 by a cure is effected. 



All this is agreed upon by those who deny the necessary pre-existence of a 

 general ill state of health, as well as by those who already know, or have yet 

 to learn, that the liver, that acknowledged cleanser, permits much grosser ma 

 terials to pass through it than those offensive matters, or gross humours, which 

 we contend reside in the blood, and constitute disorder of one kind or other cv 



