A NEW METHOD OF TREATING CANCER.
The London Lancet gives some particulars of investigations at Queen's Hospital Birmingham, by Dr John Clay, touching a new method of treating cancer. A study of the pathology ot cancer led him to the opinion that a carbohydrate of some kind might prove beneficial, and for some reasons he decided that China turpentine might prove the most suitable. Mr Clay reports several cases in which remarkable benefit evidently resulted, with every prospect of permanent cure. The new remedy was administered in pills as follows : China turpentine, six grains ; flowers of sulphur, four grains ; to be made into two pills, to be taken every four hours. In a case where the turpentine could not be digested in pills, it was made into un emulsion. . An etheral solution of China turpentine was prepared by dissolving one ounce of the turpentine in two ounces of pure sulphuric ether (anaesthetic). Of this solution £oz ; solution of tragacanth, 4oz; syrup, loz; flowers of sulphur, 40 grains ; water, 16oz ; loz three times daily. The maximum dose ofthe Ch|na turpentine which can be safely and; 1 ; continuously given is twenty-five grains daily. "It is advisable to discontinue the remedy for a few days after ten or twelve weeks' constant administration and then to resume it as before. .
Commenting on the effects of the new medicine, Dr Clay says : " The turpentine appears to act upon the periphery of the growth with great vigor, causing the speedy disappearance of what is usually termed the cancerous infiltration and thereby arresting the further development of the tumor. It produces equally efficient results on the whole mass, seemingly destroying its vitality, but more slowly. It appears to dissolve all the cancer cells, leaving the vessel to become suddenly atrophied, and the firmer structures gradually to gain a comparatively normal condition. It is a most efficient anodyne, causing an entire cessation of pain in a few days, and far more effectually than any sedative I have ever given. In the cases I have described no sedative was employed in any instance, although in some cases where great pain had existed previously to commencing the treatment, large doses had been given. Whether this arrest of pain arises from the death of the tumor, or is due to their being no longer -' irritation of the sentient nerves (in consequence of tension being withdrawn by the removal of the cells), the fact is the same."
A NEW METHOD OF TREATING CANCER.
Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5334, 31 October 1885, Page 4
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