Page:Archives of dermatology, vol 6.djvu/285

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ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY. 273 The following officers were elected for the ensuing year: President, Dr. L. D. Bulkley ; Secretary, Dr. F. R. Sturgis ; Treasurer, Dr. F. D. Weisse; Executive Committee, Drs. G. H. Fox, E. L. Keyes, and F. P. Foster.


ROYAL MEDICAL AND CHIRURGICAL SOCIETY.

MR. J. E. ERICHSEN, F.R.S., PRESIDENT, IN THE CHAIR.

MR. HENRY MORRIS read a paper on two cases of

Carcinoma of the breast preceded by so-called eczema of the nipple and areola.

In addition to the cancer of the breast, there were subsequently diffuse secondary deposits in the liver and other parts of the body. Hitherto no complete report of any similar cases has been published, although it is five years since Sir James Paget first pointed out the connection between the two diseases. Both the cases now reported differ in some respects from Sir James Paget's description, viz., in the extent of the so-called eczematous inflammation ; in the length of time between the commencement of the eczema and the superven- tion of the cancer; in the continuity of morbid changes between the seat of the eczema and the cancerous mammary nodules; and in the age of the persons — always women — affected. The variety of the cases in which cancer of the breast has supervened upon eczema of the nipple and areola is inferred from the fact that out of three hundred and five cases of cancer or supposed cancer of the breast, which were treated by the author in the cancer out-patient department of the Middlesex Hospital up to the end of 1878, these are the only two instances in which the association between the two diseases has existed.

Dr. George Thin then read a paper on

Eczema of the nipple and cancer of the breast : an inquiry into the nature and mutual relations of the morbid conditions which have been associated under these names.

Three cases were mentioned, one of Mr. Knowsley Thornton's, another in which Mr. George Lawson operated, and the third was the case upon which Mr. Morris's paper was based. Mr. Lawson's case was that of a woman aged 52, in whom the affection, diagnosed and treated as eczema, had existed four years. The duration of a perceptible tumor in the breast is uncertain, but a year before the operation none could be felt. In Mr. Thornton's case a breast