VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 603 



with a pain, and all other symptoms which characterize the cancer. These 

 kinds of wens, warts, and tubercles, which are situated in the great angle 

 of the eye, or on the lids, or the nose, often shoot out their roots on the 

 cartilages, that is, on the very membranes which cover them, and the roots 

 sink in sometimes to the substance of the cartilage itself, which they swell and 

 tear in the end. 



The more that cancers are touched with caustics, the more they are irritated; 

 therefore there is but one method, but it is a sure one, of curing them, and 

 hindering their progress ; which is, to take them off with a cutting instrument, 

 destroying the periosteum and perichondrium, or even the lids, if the cancer 

 has penetrated them in their substance, with their cartilages : which the follow- 

 ing observations will prove : 



Observ. 1. — On a cancerous upper-lid. August 11, 1736, M. Daviel was 

 called to Madame de la Fague, a nun, at Bourdeaux, 45 years old ; for a tumor 

 on the upper lid of the right eye, which she had for 20 years : it began by a 

 small wen, and increased by degrees, so as very much to incommode her. She 

 applied to a surgeon, who began by applying some drops of a liquid caustic, 

 which enraged the tumor still more ; which he appeased again by anodyne me- 

 dicines ; and then the tumor remained a long time without any sensible increase; 

 though she felt a continual sharp pain in it. But, as even the least disorders 

 are impatiently borne, she was willing to be relieved, and consulted another 

 surgeon, who took off the tumor with a cutting instrument, and who, seeing 

 that the ulcer, which was the result of the operation, did not heal, but on the 

 contrary made great progress in its erosion, and became callous, he touched it 

 with lapis infemalis ; and sometimes with a liquid caustic : which so much the 

 more increased the evil, and made her resolve to suffer no more applications, 

 because all that had been tried made her worse and worse. She was now a long 

 time in this state, when M. D. was called to consult with several other practi- 

 tioners, who, having examined the case, agreed with him that there was no other 

 method to be taken but the operation, not only to save the eye, but to prevent 

 an incurable cancer, which threatened her life. Therefore he proposed the total 

 extirpation of the lid : which proposal being approved of by all, as the only me- 

 thod of saving the eye, the operation was performed in the following manner : 



He passed a crooked needle, with a waxed thread, under the lid, by which 

 he suspended and drew up the lid and tumor, which he cut oft' with the crooked 

 scissars, as much as he could under the orbit, separating the whole to the divi- 

 sion of the lids; a small haemorrhage ensued, but which was soon stopped with 

 dry lint, and a dry compress and bandage. 



She remained 24 hours without being dressed ; was bled twice in the arm, 

 after the operation : he then dressed her up with light dossils, armed with the 



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