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 have patients daily coming to me who do not know what disease they are really labouring under, and express their astonishment on being told its real nature. By attending to the symptoms they might then attack the disease before it becomes fully developed, when it "often produces the most miserable objects of human wretchedness;" and when it frequently becomes impossible to say, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further."

CANCER,

ITS NATURE AND SYMPTOMS.

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Cancer is, unfortunately, one of those desperate diseases to which the human frame is liable, and more to be dreaded than any other, inasmuch as it is insidious in its approach, and destructive to the greatest degree when it is perfectly developed. It is so intractable and malignant in its nature that it is generally considered an incurable disease; and not without reason, as notwithstanding the great increase of knowledge amongst that valuable portion of the community, the medical profession, yet it baffles all their efforts to subdue it, and sets at defiance all the triumphs of science. This disease rarely occurs in young subjects. An eminent surgeon states, that in the course of nearly forty years' extensive practice, he has seen but two instances of its occurring under 30 years of age; most usually it commences at the age of between forty and fifty years. Like many other diseases it is frequently hereditary, many members of the same family having become the subjects of cancer. It most usually attacks the female breast, the lips, particularly the lower one, the tongue, the skin, and the glandular parts about the neck and arm-pits; the stomach, the liver, the lungs, and the brain, may also become affected with this terrible malady. Sometimes it commences without any ostensible cause, and the attention of the patient is frequently directed to the case by mere accident; at other times, blows, bruises, or continued pressure upon a part, may often be traced as the exciting cause. In either case, however, it is generally found in the state of a hard lump or knot, varying in its size, it is loose and moveable, without pain or discolouration of the skin. It may continue in this state for many months, or even years; it then enlarges, the surface of the tumour becomes more or less knotty or uneven; it becomes hot and painful, and the pain is of a peculiar darting, piercing nature, or what the faculty technically call lancinating; and the patient's health, which had hitherto continued tolerably well, now begins to suffer from the irritation of the disease. In process of time the part ulcerates, a discharge of fetid ichorous matter issues from it; sometimes it bleeds freely, and there is a burning pain in the part. The ulcer becomes of considerable size, and assumes a frightful aspect. The patient becomes dejected in his spirits, his countenance is sallow and woe worn, his appetite fails, his days and nights are full of sorrow and pain, the disease still progresses, till, finally, death comes to the aid of the unhappy sufferer, and closes the scene of