CAN
CAN
the fame gum in their writings, and expreffed indifcriminately by the fame name. CANCELLI, in building, lattices, or a fort of windows made with crofs bars of wood or iron, chequer- wife. The term is <lfo applied to the balufters or rails which compafs a court of juftice, a communion table, or the like. DuCame Glofl". Lat. T.r. p.736. Cah. Lex Jur. p.140. Neve, build. Di&. in voc. Bhigb. Orig. Ecclef 1. 8. c. 6. §. 6. Cancelli, in a military- feme, the fame with barrier. Jquin.
Lex. Milit T. 1. p. 156. See Barrier, CycL CANCER, in zoology. See the article Crab. Cancer, (CycL) in medicine, amounts to the fame with what is otherwife called carcinus or carcinoma, 1 «pxi«ufta ; though fume diftinguifh them making the carcinoma a tumor only tending to a cancer, Nent, Fund. Med. T. 2. tab 8. c 9. p. 341. A cancer differs from a fchirrus-, in that the latter is without pain. Sbaw, new praci of Phyf. p. 6i<". See Schtrrhus. Cancers alfo differ from thofe called fimply cancerous ulcers, or tumors, which though of a like general nature, vary in many c ire Limit an ces. See Cancerous
Cancels appear with fuch a diverfity, that it feems impofilble to give a definition which fhall .gree to all. Some have a round, unequal, livid, painful hardnefs ; others are flat without lividi- ty, and fometimes indolent. The variety arifes chiefly from their rife, and the different parts they are feated in, as the breaft, womb, lips, nofe, eyes, ears, &c. Phil. Tranf. N° 260. p. 476.
Some reftrain cancers to thofe on womens breafts, which alone exhibit the appearance of crabs ; and give the name carcinoma ; and cancerous ulcer, to thofe on the other parts. 'Jnnch. Confp. Chir. Tab. 50. p. 299.
The generality of authors afcribe the caufe of cancers to an acid ferment which firft coagulates the juices in the glands, and afterwards corrodes and ulcerates the part. Gendron refuting this theory, fubftitutes another; the cancer^ according to him, is not a difeafe of the fluids, but of the folids. It arifes from a diforder of the lymphatic and excretory veflels of the glands, which becoming by fome accident impervious, and ceafing to filtrate and convey their liquors, by degrees degenerate into a compact, horny mafs, capable of germination and ulceration. What feems to confirm this origin is, that in grown cancers there is always found a hard callous fubftance not unlike horn, with blood veflels dilTcminatcd through it,which yet are fmaller and narrower than before the formation of the hardnefs. This callofity is found in cutaneous cancers, though it there extends itfelf in a different manner, appearing at firft like a fmall wart from which fpring cutaneous filaments. "When the ulceration has made fome progrefs, thefe appear like pin-heads in the flefh, which are no other than the extremities of the filaments. This fubftance always found in true cancers, according to M. Gendron, is the cancer itfelf, formed by the tranfmutation of the glandular and lymphatic vcffels. On this principle he re- folves the fpreading of a cancer, into a vegetation performed by the conveyance of the nutritious juices through the ramifica- tions of the tumor, as through horns, nails, or the like fub- ftances. The pain proceeds from the comprcflion of the ner- vous parts, as that in corns, and the lividity from the obftruc- tion of the blood ; not as commonly fuppofed from a cauftic fait, which would foon caufe an efchar. Gendron, Recherch. fur la Nat. &c. des cancers, c. 3. feq. Phil. Tranf. N° 260. p- 477. feq. Act Enid. Lipf. an. iyoi.p. 306. fcq. The cancer is one of thofe difeafes for which no competent re- medy has been yet found, not even when taken early, or in its occult ftate. The mofi that medicine can do, is to palliate, or keep it back by diet and general remedies. Le Clerc, Treat, Chir Operat. c. 8. p. 198, feq. Where the operation of cutting off a cancerous breaft is defcribed.
'Tis a famous aphorifm, that occult cancers are better uncured than cured ; and that the patient will live longer with them than without them 3 . But phyficians are not to be deterred by an old aphorifm ; they attempt not only a palliative, but a ra- dical cure. The former partly by externals of the narcotic kind, to allay the pain, and hinder the fpreading of the cancer ; partly by internals, the chief of which are the diaphoreticum poterii, martials, feveral preparations of earth worms, and tin- cture of antimony b , but especially the juice of the folanum le- thalc, which is atopic of great fame for the palliative cure of cancers. It was the great fecret of Percival Willougby. Gen- dron improves it by the addition of faccharum faturni c . Pa- racelfus and Helmont boaft of their arfenical preparations, and other mineral abforbents, which may indeed confume the fun- gous flefh, but the cure, according to Gendron, confifts only in eradicating the callous body, which is rather irritated and in- creafed by the injudicious application of corrofive medicines d . — [ a Hippoc. aphor. 38. fe£t. 6. b A&. Erud Lipf. an. 1701. p. 310. c Phil. Tranf. ubi ftipra. p. 481. d Id. ib. p. 480. J The true cure of cancers, according to this writer, is either by exfe£tion or amputation of the part, or by the application of cauteries. The former may be ufed where the tumor Is move- able, and its bafc terminates abruptly, does not adhere to the adjacent parts, and confequently has fent no filaments to the fame ; as is the cafe in s&cancen arifing from fchirrhous or fcro- phuious tumors. Gendron, lib. bit, c. 8. A&. Erud, Lipf. 1701.P 3c8>feq.
But the true cancers, he obferves, are feldom extirpated with fuccefs ; and the operation would be lefs in repute, if fchirrhi ftruma?, and other fimilar tumors were not frequently mifta- ken for cancers. Phil. Tranf. loc. cit. p. +79. Dr. Cheyne fays, that a total afs milk diet, about two quarts a day without any other food or drink, will in time cure a can- cer. Nat. meth. of curing dif. p. 263, 264. In the memoirs of the royal academy of fdences mention is made of the radical cure of three inveterate cancers, by an in- fufion of the leaves of plumbago in olive oil ; thefe cancers had been deemed incurable by reafon of their adherence to bony parts. The author of that memoir, Monfieur Sauvages de la Croix, obferves, that the cancerous ulcers were anointed three times a day with the beforementioned infufion of plumbago, and that the operation was repeated, till the bla.k efchar there- by formed was fufSciently encrufted for the patient to feel no fharp pains upon the application ; and that this happened in about a fortnight's time. See Mem. Acad. Scienc. An. 1739. p. 471- Edit. Parif.
Cancers are fometimes internal. We have hiftories of two fuch in the philofophical TraniatSHons ■% from which Dr. Burton endeavours to deduce the diagnoftics of a cancer within the ab- domen b . — [ 3 N° 464. fec"t 2. b Ib p. 1 1 1 ] To prevent Cancers. — When there is danger of an approaching cance- , the acrimony of the blood is, if poffible, to be corrected by the ufe both of internal and external remedies, and a ftricT: regimen in regard to diet is to be obferved. Broths and foups made of the flefh of young animals, and with proper herbs boil- ed in them, as fcorfoncra, and the others of that tribe, are very beneficial in thefe cafes ; themoft wholefome drink is either fair water, or a decoction of China Root, or farfaparilla, or the like ; and when the pains are violent from the fchirrus, which is now threafning to become a cancer, white poppy feeds may be added in confiderable quantities to the decoction, and it may be fweetened with a proper quantity of fyrup of diacodium. Two or three times a day alfo mould be taken a dofe of Gaf- coin's powder, fait of wormwood, native cinnabar, crude and diaphoretic antimony, adding to each dofe as there fhall beoc- cafion, half a grain of laudanum to affuage the violence of the pain. Great benefit is alfo fometimes received in this cafe by taking either the powder or juice of millepedes, with fperma ceti.
Purges alfo of the mercurial kind frequently do great fervice, as does alfo bleeding and cupping frequently in the fpring and au- tumn. A thin plate of lead well impregnated with quickfilver may alfo be very conveniently worn on the part and with great advantage, for this method cannot but weaken the fenfs of pain, and may often prevent a cancer.
If the application of the plate of lead malt prove infufneiene, plaifters and ointments compofed of fuch ingredients as are known to affuage pains may alfo be applied ; the following are of this kind, and are frequently found of fervice. Take of the unguentum diapompholygostwo ounces, of opium halfafcru- ple, mix thefe into an ointment, and frequently rub the part affecTred with it; or take of an amalgama of quickfilver and lead two ounces, mix this with a fufficient quantity of oint- ment ofrofes, or any the like unguent, then fpread a pari of it on a linen rag, and apply it in the manner of a plaifter to the part ; or take litharge vinegar an ounce, expreffed oil of hen- bane feeds, poppy feeds, and the infufed oil of rofes, of each two ounces, mix them by a long and continued ftirring toge- ther into an ointment, adding toward the end of the operation purified opium from fix to ten grains, as the urgency of the fymptoms may require : this is to be fpread in like manner on linen rags, and applied at times to the part. If the daubing of thefe ointments is difliked, a refrigercnt plai- fter may be ufed in their ftead, fuch is the lead plaifter of Myn- fycht, the plaifters of red lead, orpompholyx, or the excellent plaifter made by the following prefcription : take of the frefh and depurated juices of henbane, garden poppy, and water hemlock, of each four ounces, boil thefe to a thicknefs over a gentle fire, adding toward the end of the boiling eight ounces of white wax, and one ounce of oil ofrofes, and make the whole into a plaifter ; or take of fugar of lead, of cerufe of the amalgamation of quickfilver and lead, and of the expreffed oil of henbane feed, and infufed oil of rofes, of each two ounces, make thefe into a plaifter. If the pains are very violent, a fmall quantity of opium may be added to either of thefe plaifters. Heifer's furgery, page 223. Cancer, in a more vague fenfe, is extended to all ulcers dif- pofed to putridity. SeeUiChR.
Such are moft inveterate, malignant, cavernous, fiftulous, vari- cous and colliquative ulcers. The Arabs call the elenhantiafis the univerfal cancer. Journ. des Scav. T. 67. p. 312. Junck. Confp Chir. Tab. 50. p. 300. Celfus even ranks the gangrene and fphacelus in the clafs of cancers.
Others include the caries of bones in the number. The reafon is, that what a cancer is in the glands, that a caries is fuppofed to be in the bones, and a gangrene in the fjefhy parts; thejuft- nefs of which fuppofition may bear much difpute. Ephem. Acad. N. C.dec. 1. An. j.p. 18.
Cancers are by fome divided into primitive and degenerate. Primitive Canc&rs are thofe which come of themfelves, ap- pearing at firft about the bignefs of a pea, and enly pjinful <-t
