It is rather unlucky, that the advocates for obstruction have made it the cause of simple inflammation, scrophula, cancer, &c.; and therefore all these diseases ought to be nearly, if not entirely, similar in their nature, and to require exactly the same means of cure.
[120] Adam’s Observations on Morbid Persons, p. 184.
[121] Idem, p. 185.
[122] Adam’s Observations on Morbid Persons, p. 184.
[123] Idem, p. 161.
[124] Van Swieten’s Commentaries, article Cancer.
[125] Mr. Hunter supposes, that the mere absorption of schirrous substance before matter be formed, will affect the glands; but it is difficult to ascertain the certainty of this, as small abscesses are formed very early. I have formerly mentioned, that every part of the animal is changed in its nature, at the moment of being absorbed: If so, schirrous substances lose all specific property, and cannot affect the glands. Pus, again, being a foreign matter, is absorbed unchanged, and continues so until it reaches the glands.
[126] It may be said, that different parts have different susceptibilities of assuming the morbid condition; that the bones are longer of becoming affected than the soft parts, &c. Admit this, and still it must be explained, why every part of a similar structure, &c. should not be affected at the same moment. All the glands should become diseased at once; all the bones should inflame at the same time; and, instead of finding one or two organs affected, in consequence of the previous existence of a local disease, we should find the whole system rapidly becoming diseased.
[127] It was supposed, that when the menses were obstructed, the impurities were sent by communicating vessels to the breast, where they lodged, and produced cancer. Vide Vesalii Opera, p. 1092. Fabricius de Tum. p. 118.
Le Dran observes, that when schirrus, from any cause, takes place in the breast, before the cessation of the menses, it uniformly becomes more painful when any irregularity of that discharge occurs. Vide Memoires de l’Acad. de Chirurg. Tom. III. p. 22.