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

Observations on the Causes,
Symptoms, and
by John Kent

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Symptoms, and
Nature of Scrofula or King's Evil, Scurvy, and Cancer, by John Kent
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Title: Observations on the Causes, Symptoms, and Nature of Scrofula
or King's Evil, Scurvy, and Cancer With Cases Illustrative of a Peculiar
Mode of Treatment
Author: John Kent
Release Date: November 13, 2007 [EBook #23468]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, AND NATURE
OF
SCROFULA OR KING'S EVIL,
SCURVY, AND CANCER;
WITH
CASES ILLUSTRATIVE OF A PECULIAR MODE OF
TREATMENT.
[Illustration: "All Plants, from the Hyssop on the wall to the Cedar of
Lebanon, have some essential parts."]
BY J. KENT, Stanton, Suffolk.
Eighth Edition.
BURY ST. EDMUND'S: PRINTED BY W. B. FROST, 34,
CHURCHGATE STREET.
MDCCCXXXIII.

PREFACE.
In consequence of the extreme prevalence of Scrofulous, Scorbutic, and
Cancerous Diseases, and the ignorance which exists on the part of the
public, as to their causes, symptoms, and nature, I have been induced to

reprint my observations on those subjects, and to send forth an Eighth
Edition for the information of the afflicted.
To these remarks, I have appended a relation of several cases, which
have been cured by a peculiar mode of treatment which I have been in
the habit of employing for twenty-six years; during which long period I
have seen and treated an immense number of cases of the above
description.
These cases I have rendered very concise, preferring the main points in
each to a verbose and tiresome description of the minutiae; and
although the number might have been extended to many hundreds, I
trust a sufficiency have been detailed to establish the success of my
practice, and to show the afflicted the nature and modes of attack of the
diseases above mentioned.
I have confined myself to a simple relation of the facts of each case,
and on those facts such case must stand or fall. I have not resorted to
those artificial props which some men are in the habit of employing
because the cases themselves are too lame to stand alone; I allude to the
practice of soliciting the attestations of the patients, and decoying the
simple, the ignorant, well-intentioned, but deceived neighbours, to add
their signatures to cases of which they know nothing, and of which the
details are a series of bombast, falsehood, ignorance, and humbug.
There are many of the cases which I have related to which I could have
obtained the signatures of clergymen, Members of Parliament,
magistrates, and other persons high in rank and station in life, without
saying a word about overseers, churchwardens, and parishioners, the
signatures of whom might be obtained at all times; but, established as
my practice is, I would scorn to importune those gentlemen, and
impertinently to place their names before the public in a position which
every sensible man must declare to be that of extreme negligence,
ignorance, or unbecoming officiousness.
It may be readily supposed, that from the long career of success which I
have had in the treatment of scrofulous diseases, some impudent
individuals should have attempted to imitate my mode of proceeding,
and to foist themselves and their spurious remedies upon the public; of

this I should have cared nothing had they not done it at my expense;
because these inventions will find their proper level in the estimation of
the public, notwithstanding their props and delusions. But these men
are absolutely so ignorant, that they are compelled to copy my cases
and observations verbatim; and I have little doubt that this edition will
have issued from the press but a very few months, before one or other
of them will be purloining such parts of it as their hired scribes may
consider to answer their purpose. Not that these imposters understand
the observations which I have made on scrofula or cancer, their heads
are too empty--their ignorance too profound--and their pretensions
consequently too barefaced. Relying upon the credulity of the public,
they make no scruple in being guilty of glaring plagiarism; they thus
strut about in borrowed plumes, and their presumption keeps pace with
their want of information.
As a proof of the grossest ignorance, I have seen it asserted that sixty
cases of confirmed