Observations on the Causes, Symptoms, and Nature of Scrofula or Kings Evil, Scurvy, and Cancer | Page 4

as they hasten an event which in all probability might have been prevented.--Scrofula is not a local disease which may be remedied by the knife or any other local remedy; but it is a constitutional disease, which must be treated by constitutional means.
Now scrofula is so insidious in its approach, and so distressing, and often fatal, in its consequences, that the form of its commencement ought to be known to all individuals who are liable to its attacks, either from an hereditary tendency, or other causes. When it commences in the glands about the neck, behind the ears, in the arm-pits, hams, &c., it appears as hard and indolent swellings, somewhat moveable under the skin, the colour of which is little changed; these tumours or swellings gradually increase in number and size till they form one large hard tumour, which often continues for a long time without breaking, and when it does break it only discharges a thin sanies or watery humour from one or more small apertures. The disease even then maintains its indolent character; the ulcerated parts become languid and inactive, and the constitution begins to be affected; the patient complains of weakness--there is a want of appetite; there are frequently profuse night sweats, and feeling of languor and lassitude.
When from blows, bruises, sprains, or other causes, the joints of the elbows, wrists, ankles, knees, fingers or toes, become affected, the disease proceeds in the same slow manner, frequently destroying the ligaments or tendons; the matter insinuating itself between the bones till they become carious, and ultimately destroyed. What is commonly termed white swelling is of this description; it may continue for a great length of time, and yet the patient may recover, excepting a stiffness or contraction of the affected joint. I may also remark that in Scrofulous constitutions there is frequently a thickness of the upper lip, or swelling of the lower part of the nose; the eyes are also peculiarly liable to attacks of scrofula, in which case the light is remarkably offensive to those organs. The skin and muscles are loose and flabby; and the mental powers of children so affected are often prematurely displayed.
Having thus described the nature and symptoms of scrofula, I shall now proceed to make some observations on the treatment of that disease.
The cure of scrofula is generally so difficult that it has become an opprobrium of surgery. There is not one specific remedy for it; even the medicines and applications which I am in the habit of employing, will not be equally efficacious in persons of different constitutions, nor in the same person at all times; and as such, some little alteration frequently becomes necessary to adapt the remedies to the present state of the disease. It is from this difficulty of cure that so many remedies have been proposed in scrofula; and yet the same difficulty continues, plainly shewing that the greater part of these nostra are mere deceptions, imposing upon the sufferer, both in mind and pocket. Hence the proposers of these fictitious remedies become more bold and impudent than ever; nothing is too barefaced for them to publish; not even that they can extract carious bone without any other aid than "the power of their medicines,"--than which nothing can be more impudently false. These deceptions, however, find their proper level, and they then rapidly sink into oblivion. The botanical medicines and applications which I have had the honour to bring before the public as remedies for scrofula have stood the test of twenty-six years' experience; during which period many hundreds of cures have been effected solely by their agency. They still maintain their unrivalled efficacy; scrofula has yielded its stubbornness and its malignity to their powers in a vast variety of instances, and they may be fairly considered as established in the opinion of the public. Yet, notwithstanding this success, I do not publish them as specifics; I am not vain enough to challenge the world, like a mountebank; I am aware that they do, in some constitutions, sometimes fail of effecting a cure; yet the great majority of instances in which they have succeeded after every other means had been tried, fully entitle them to superior consideration; more especially, as in those cases where they may have failed of complete success, they have evidently been of essential service in retarding the progress and alleviating the pain of the disease. I would also remark that they exert a permanent effect on the constitution; the patient is not cured to-day and his case published to-morrow; but most of the cures which I have published have been of from two to twenty years' standing.
I would now particularly direct the attention of patients to the nature, causes, and symptoms of scrofula, as detailed above, the more especially as I