The early recognition of carcinoma of the cervix / by Hunter Robb.

  • Robb, Hunter, 1863-1940.
Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The early recognition of carcinoma of the cervix / by Hunter Robb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [Reprinted from the American Gynaecological for September, 1895.] AND Obstetrica: AI. THE EARLY RECOGNITION OF CARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX* By Hunter Robb, M. D., Professor of Gynaecology, Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. In the paper which I shall read to-day I can not boast of any great amount of originality. All the work that has been done of late years upon carcinoma, although it has given us a great deal of addi- tional knowledge as to the pathological changes which occur in the course of this disease, has not as yet taught us the ultimate cause for its existence. All the vaunted remedies which have been tried, some without harm but many more with the most pernicious results, from the Cana- dian pine (which seemed when first tried in the hands of good men to give almost miraculous results) down to the various caustics with which innocent patients are still tortured by charlatans who profess to know everything, or by ignorant practitioners who ought to know at least something—all have been laid aside by the best authorities, and it is generally allowed that the only chance of complete cure lies in the extermination by means of the knife of all the neoplasm. But we know to our cost that although in many cases we are able to take away the greater portion of the growth, and thereby afford the patient comparative comfort and give her a respite for weeks, months, or years, yet if the smallest portion of the tumor or of a metastasis be left, a return of the disease is absolutely certain. In what way, then, have we made any advance? Or are we in the same position as we were twenty years ago ? It would indeed’ be dis- heartening if all the work which has been done is to go for nothing ; and although the number of cases of carcinoma is still considerable in our mortality statistics, the death-rate has undoubtedly been much diminished of late years. * Read before the Ohio State Medical Society, Columbus, Ohio, May 16, 1895. COPYHICHT, 1895, BY J. D. EmMET, M. D.