CANCER.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 27, 20 January 1877, Page 3

CANCER.

The Melbourne " Daily Telegraph " mentions that an operation for cancer m the tongue was performed m the Melbourne Hospital on a recent date, which is worthy of special notice for two reasons. In the first place it was the first operation of the kind which has been performed m the institution, and secondly, the result has been most- satisfactory as the patient is progressing m the most favorable manner. The most usual, operation for removing the tongue has been that of severing the chin bone, and then cutting the tongue, but m the case now m question the tongue was extracted by the use of an instrument termed the galvanic eraseur, which performs the operations by means of a wire heated to a white heat by a battery, arid removes the tongue without the loss of blood. In the case of the patient a consultation was held by Drs James, Gillbee, and Beaney, when it was decided to perform the operation, and Dr Beaney, having placed the patient under chloroform, extracted the diseased tongue close to the root. Not a drop of blood escaped from the vessel, the instrument being so constructed that as the heated wire cuts through the flesh it sears the veins, and the operation has the further advantage that after it is over the patient suffers very little pain. At the present time he is m high spirits respecting the result, and can talk without his tongue sufficiently well to make himself partially understood.