Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 4.djvu/299

 Rh however, true, that many cases have been so designated in which the mucous membrane of the bowels alone was the diseased part. I think, however, that if not all, certainly the greater number of the twelve cases ranged under this head in the Dispensary table, were, in reality, affections of the glands of the mesentery; and I am, therefore, disposed to regard this disease as more than usually common among the children of Penzance. At least, I can safely say that I have not met with it in so great a proportion since l left that place.

Scirrhus and Cancer.—I am unable to form a guess as to the comparative frequency of this disease in this district. The Dispensary tables, my own observation, and the testimony of the resident practitioners, all prove that the affection is of common occurrence. Most of the older practitioners had had from eight to twelve cases, at different times, under their care. The relative proportion of prevalence, in the Dispensary table, is, during my connexion with the charity, 1 in 91.5, and during the whole seventeen years, 1 in 210; and the relative proportion of fatal cases, in the St. Paul's obituary register, is 1 in 130. The number of cases of internal cancer appeared to me greater at Penzance than I have noticed elsewhere. The following is the analysis of the twelve cases recorded in the Dispensary books, during my administration: 1 of the lip; 1, eye; 1, uterus; 1, cardia; 4, pylorus; 4, mamma. The disease affected no class of the community in particular. None of the practitioners ever knew a case of genuine cancer cured by medical means.