It may be asked, also, to what period of the complaint the internal use of arsenic should be confined? We suspect it is not proper in this early stage: at a later period it certainly acts as a tonic, and a moderately gentle stimulant. We have seen, from its use, an extensive sore filled with the most healthy granulations, the complexion become clear, the appetite improved, and the general health increased. Unfortunately, these good effects have not been permanent. By increasing the dose, we have gained a little more, but at last every advantage was apparently 1ost.

We have been led, however, from our path, by pursuing the effects of remedies not adapted for the stage of the complaint we were considering. When an accidental tumour is excited to suppuration in a diseased habit, and the plans formerly mentioned neither discuss it nor prevent inflammation, the sore appears to arise from distinct points in the manner described, which soon unite, and form one large, foul, ragged ulcer, with retracted or inverted edges. This ulcer is painful and irritable; but the sedative applications do not then succeed, and moderately stimulant ones seem to relieve. In fact, the inflammation is of the erysipelatous kind, and requires warmer applications than truly phlegmonic sores. At this period, medicines, we fear, are useless. The arsenic, the hemlock, the aconite, the bella donna, with innumerable other poisonous plants, have had their supporters, but success has not procured many imitators. The carrot poultice was thought useful: it corrected the foetor, but did no more. The carbonic acid air had its day of triumph in many different forms, but is no longer remembered. Hemlock has been used in fomentations and in tepid baths, in which the patient has been directed to sit for twenty minutes, at times with some apparent utility, but often without effect. Toads have been induced to suck the sore, and it has been said that-they expire in agonies, while the appearance of the ulcer is meliorated. If this were, however, the case, the practice would not have been abandoned. We have witnessed the experiment, but it was at an age when our observations could scarcely be trusted. At this period, mercury is, we think, injurious; but arsenic, which unites a tonic with an inferior stimulating power, will often produce temporary benefit.

We have described the effects of arsenic given internally, as well as the disappointment which often followed its continued use. Another metallic tonic has been employed, it is said with some success, in cancers, viz. the ferrum ammoniacale, formerly the flores Martiales. With this remedy we have had little experience; but have reason to believe, that, like the arsenic, its advantages are temporary only. It is assisted by a tincture of iron, united probably with aether; but which is imitated, with sufficient advantage, by mixing the tinctura ferri muriati with an equal portion of spirit of wine.

Before we speak more fully of external and other remedies, we may mention one form of cancer which does not essentially differ from the usual appearances of the disease but in its very rapid increase. It has been called the occult cancer, probably because it was supposed to be a sudden deposition of matter before concealed. The swelling is rapid, and increases soon to an alarming size, with very considerable hardness. Whether this be a real deposition from the blood, or whether peculiar causes assist its rapid increase, is of little consequence to enquire, as the treatment is the same, and the success, though not greater, certainly not less.

When a tumour in any part has not ulcerated, when attended with little pain, and freely moveable, extirpation is an operation equally easy and successful. In parts apparently not glandular, as in the cheeks, the lips, the glans penis, etc. it very often succeeds completely. In the breast, the disease is more likely to re-mrn; yet, in the state just described, even this is not very common. The further we recede from it, the less favourable is the prognostic. The first Monro gives, in the Medical Essays of Edinburgh, a very unfavourable statement of the operation; but Mr. Hill, of Dumfries, seems to have been more successful. It may be, indeed, remarked, that a large proportion of the cancers he extirpated were from the lips and other parts; those of the breast were not equally numerous.

When female timidity refuses to submit to the knife, a caustic has been proposed, and the substance chosen has been arsenic. We have already spoken of this substance and its preparations, but, by accident, omitted one very commonly employed, the magnes arsenicalis. The omission was the more singular, as it stood in out-list of arsenical preparations, and we mentioned the plasters formed from it. The preparation was first described by Hollandus about the latter end of the fourteenth century, and afterwards by Crollius, Ange-lus Sala, and Vitalis. It is made by melting together arsenic, sulphur, and antimony. The preparation has been improved by Mr. Justamond, who used it as a caustic, under the name of arsenicum antimoniatum, and was prepared by melting two parts of antimony with one of arsenic. The sulphur of the antimony supplies a sufficient portion in this instance to lessen the virulence of the metal.

We think, however, that arsenic is improperly called a caustic. This acts by destroying the part to which it is applied. Arsenic, on the contrary, separates the sound from the diseased portion, not by any action on the part itself, but by exciting the powers of nature; and a caustic is added to it to destroy the integuments. The effect of arsenic may be very properly illustrated by what takes place in mortifications. When, by warm fomentations, stimulants, and tonics, the disease is conquered, a red circle is observed at some little distance from the mortified part, which, by degrees, suppurates, separating the diseased from the healthy portion. Arsenic acts in the same way. No part is destroyed, but. by the inflammation excited, the diseased mass is separated from the sound. In this action, it coincides with what we have observed of its general effects, which we found to be those of a stimulant and tonic; and the opinion is supported by the similar effects of a remedy, whose powers we found greatly to resemble those of arsenic; we mean mercury. In the bay sore, which is a true cancer, occurring on the coast of Honduras, we are informed, by Dr. Moseley, that an effectual cure is obtained by an application of corrosive sublimate. About a scruple is sufficient for a cancer, which a plaster of diachylon, about the size of a crown piece, would cover. Mr. Justamond, in some instances, joins the corrosive sublimate with arsenic. Opium, added to both applications, mitigates the pain without injuring the efficacy of the remedy. The argentum nitratum, with opium, is sometimes applied the day before the arsenic, to destroy the integuments, in which it supplies the place of the crowfoot in Plunket's receipt.