_Whether Cancers are Curable by Causticks._
The Difficulty that those of our Predecessors who had Courage enough to attempt the Cure of _Cancers_, must unavoidably meet with, obliged them to enter upon several Methods of Practice, in order to be capable of surmounting it; and there have not been wanting for these several hundred Years last past, some Gentlemen in the Republick of Medicine that have proposed to conquer this Rebellious Disease, by the use of some particular Causticks, they have recommended. It is foreign to my Design, to give an Account of the Composition of the several Remedies, they have been big with the Expectation of Success from; I shall only take notice of one or two not very pompous Preparations, that by some Persons I know, have been looked upon as extraordinary as any that have been transmitted to us. _Guido_, who I think I may justly say is one of the best Authors of so ancient a Date, has been very lavish of his Encomiums on _Arsnick_, and after him _Fallopius_, _Rodericus a Castro_, _Ossenius_, _Penotus_, _Faber_, _Borellus_, and others, have recommended it in some particular Preparations. That of _Fuschius_, who is said to have cured abundance of Persons of _Cancers_, in _England_, _Germany_, and _Poland_, having had the most said in it’s Commendation, required our more particular Notice; _Hartman_ calls it _Pul Benedictus_, which whether it deserves that Title, we will leave to the Reader to judge, after we have faithfully recounted the Effects of it. Its Preparation is as follows: ℞ _Arsenici albi_ ℥i _subtilissime pulverisetur per dies 15 de die tertio in tertium affundatur Aq. vitæ, ut cooperiat pulverem, post triduum Aq. vitæ abjiciatur, ac nova affundatur, ac misceantur. Rad Dracunouli Major, mense julio vel Agu. collect & in taleolas scissæ ac in loco ventis perflatili exsiccatæ_ ℥ii. _Fuliginis Camini splendidi_ ℥iii _redigantur omnia in subtilissimum pulverem super lapidem marmoreum, & servetur in Vase bene clauso vitreo. Ante annum vero ad usum non erit it a commodus_. This Powder I applied to a _Cancerated_ Breast of a Woman, under thirty Years of Age, after having made a Sore by applying one of the milder _Causticks_; the first Night it was made use of, it caused a great deal of pain, and the next Day, the Breast appeared very much tumefied and inflamed, a small quantity of Gleet, having discharged on the Bolster: in short for fifteen Days she was not free from pain, she had a _Fever_, was attended with frequent _Vomitings_, _Faintings_, and several other Disorders. I could afford her but very little Relief by Internals, or the most cool and temperate Applications to the Breast; nor was it in my Power to remove the dressing, it adhered so fast to the Sore. There was a Discharge of a bloody ferous Juice for twelve Days in a moderate quantity, after which the Matter thickened, and it began to smell somewhat offensive, at the end of fifteen Days the Dressing dropped off, and with it came away about two Ounces of the _cancerous Mass_. The Reader may easily imagine that making so small a Progress in such a time, and that at the Expence of so much Pain, I could easily prevail with my self to desist from the Undertaking, for the second Application would have been attended with the same Inconveniencies as the first, which to any Persons that entertains such a concern for his Patients as he ought to do, must be very fatiguing; in short, after this I made use of that Remedy I had elsewhere mentioned, and which from its Effect was properly enough called a _Dissolvent_, with this by the Blessing of God the _Cancerous_ Substance was consumed in about three Weeks, and a perfect Cure compleated in not many Days after, the Patient which I saw lately continuing perfectly well, it being the first Case that ever Providence directed me to the use of the Remedy in. _Hildan_ has an Observation very pertinent to what we have before related; he tells us, that the _Powder_ so much celebrated by _Penotus_, and which is much the same with that just now mentioned, being applied to a _Cancer_, was succeeded by such ill Symptoms, that it killed the Patient in a few Days. We are informed in the communicated Observations of _Riverius_, that a Foreigner extirpated a Cancer, that had began to Ulcerate in the Breast of a Woman of fifty Years of Age, by the following Application: ℞ _Arsenici_ ʒi. _Salis Armoniaci_ ℥ii. _Sublimat. crud._ ℥iiii. _Aq; Fortis_ ℥i.