_Whether_ Salivation _will Cure a_ Cancer.
The extraordinary Success this Method has been attended with, in some Cases of the greatest Difficulty, has so far recommended it to the World, that it is at this Time become of so great Repute, that there are few Persons but what will willingly embrace it, if proposed to them, provided they have found former Methods prove ineffectual. We once knew a Person, who laboured under an ulcerated _Cancer_ in her Breast, advised to it, and who had certainly under-gone it, though contrary to the Opinion of some Persons concerned, if in three or four Days time she had not been reduced to such a weak Condition, that it put an End to the Controversy. That a _Salivation_ has cured the most malign and spreading Ulcers, and those that have been of several Years continuance, notwithstanding their Edges have been high, inverted and assumed the Consistence of a callous Body, we have found by several Instances; but that it should cure a _Cancerous Ulcer_, an _Ulcer_ which is chiefly seated in a transformed animal Substance, and which has no Correspondence with the contiguous Parts, is what we cannot believe. One of the principal Effects of _Mercury_, if prudently given, is, that it attenuates the Juices, clears the Canals, destroys the ill Quality of that Fluid that has a Hand in causing any Obstruction, and renders the Juices temperate and sweet. By effecting this, it is, that it cures so many different Diseases, which perhaps have not so great a Diversity in their Causes, but have different Appearances, which depend upon the Variety of Parts, where the Cause operates. From hence any One may judge, that a Person who discovers a certain Method of curing _Cancers_ by Medicines only, will find that it will not consist in a Secret for purifying the Juices, which can have no Effect on the _Cancerous Mass_, so as to procure it’s Dissolution; and without a Remedy for which his Method will be always unsuccessful. _Mercklin_, in his Treatise _de Transfus Sanguinis_, page 35, tells us we have no Reason to believe we may have Success from Transfusion in a _Cancer_, nor indeed would Injections succeed better; though, perhaps, by this Means, it is possible so to alter the Fluids, that _Ulcers_, not _Cancerous_, may be cured in a short Time, as it once happened to a certain Person, who being under Cure for an inveterate Pox, had some _Rosin_ of _Scammony_ infused in the Essence of _Guaiacum_, injected into his Veins, which Vomited him excessively; but his _Ulcers_ were healed in three Days Time. From what has been hitherto said, it is evident, that a _Salivation_ can never cure a confirmed _Cancer_, because it is not capable of procuring a Dissolution of that hard Substance, which is the real _Cancer_ it self. The Glands we have observed, with the extravasated _Lympha_, and its Vessels, are perfectly changed to a different Substance to what they were before, all which make a _Mass_ of such a Nature, that it will be impossible to procure it’s Dissolution by any inward Means. If the _Cancer_ was nothing more than a Coagulation of the Juices in the Vessels, or other Canals, or Pipes, the Cure might be much more easily effected, but as the _Cancer_ is conjoined with such Circumstances as we have mentioned, we may affirm the Cure will be altogether impossible without the whole Substance with it’s Appendices or Branches (which we have found they often have) be taken away; or a perfect Dissolution of all of it be procured by some external Remedy, which is capable of operating on it after such a peculiar Manner, as to dissolve the _Cancerous Substance_, without having any such Effect on the contiguous Parts.