The following discussion, at the Meeting of the Vienna Society of Homoeopathic Physicians, February 24th, 1864, is of such practical interest that we give it a prominent place.

“Dr. Wurmb narrated the course of a case of mammary cancer in a lady at the climacteric period. He was called about six years ago to this lady who, though appearing to be otherwise in good health, was suffering from a cancerous degeneration of the glands of the left breast and axilla. The whole left upper extremity was very much swollen and edematous and painful; the patient was obliged to lie upon a sofa, almost unable to move. At the same time, the lady was visited by a professor, who gave an unfavorable prognosis, and said the patient had not long to live. During these six years Wurmb gave her hardly anything but Ars.³⁰ During the whole period she preserved her appearance of general health; the mammary gland sloughed away gradually and in its place an entirely healthy skin has now formed.

“Dr. Watzke narrated likewise a case of mammary cancer which he had had opportunity to observe and in part to treat. The patient was a lady, 40 years of age, who suffered from a nodulated degeneration of the mammary gland, that had been diagnosticated as cancer. She had severe pains in it and had been allopathically treated for three months, without any effect whatever. He and another colleague then undertook the treatment, and at the end of two years the entire gland had disappeared and its place was occupied by a skin, which to all appearance was entirely normal. This lady was generally looked upon as cured, and she herself believed in her complete recovery. In two years, however, this newly formed skin broke out without any special cause and a carcinomatous ulcer formed, which, after a long time, cicatrized, broke out again and finally healed. Dr. Pandolfi, who was at that time in Vienna, believed he could completely cure her, in which however he did not succeed.

“After repeated cicatrizations and breakings out again, she finally died in the twelfth year of her disease. He desired, by the history of this case, to establish, that one should never, in a case of this disease, rejoice too soon and that the patient should never be regarded as radically cured, even when the morbid product has been removed, and a healthy skin had been developed in its stead.

“Dr. Tedesco has at present under treatment a lady, who six years ago received a blow upon the breast, always afterwards felt pains in it, subsequently observed a nodule in it, but from prudish considerations abstained from mentioning the fact to any person, until the tumor had attained a considerable size. A Professor diagnosticated the nodule to be a cancerous degeneration and wished to remove it by a surgical operation, to which, however, the patient did not consent. For three months no external change was perceptible, only the pains became less severe. Gradually atrophy of the mamma set in, but, at the same time, the patient began visibly to collapse and at the present time there is frequent vomiting.

“Dr. Watzke has now under treatment a lady with a mammary cancer. Under Conium the gland is constantly disappearing and the pains also have become less.

“Dr. Wurmb, hereupon, was led, by analogy, to speak of tuberculosis. We often see it appear, then come to a standstill; an aggravation occurs, which is followed by a temporary amelioration, until finally the patient becomes a victim. Even if we cannot cure it, we are often able by means of our remedies to arrest its rapid progress.

“Dr. Watzke is of the same opinion. At the least, he believes, that our remedies are much more beneficial to the patient than Opium which is so commonly given in such cases.

“Dr. Tedesco observed that the Allopaths now frequently give - both externally and internally - Silicea for cancerous ulcers. Whereupon Dr. Wurmb replied that Prof. Schub, when writing his book on 'Pseudo-plasmen,' explicitly confessed therein that his attention had been called to this remedy by a homoeopathic cure with Silicea, of which he had himself been a joint observer.”

At the meeting of March 15th, 1864, “Dr. Wurmb added to the narrative of a case of mammary cancer related by him at the preceding meeting, the fact that the spot on the mamma has completely cicatrized, and that the axillary glands were likewise beginning to fall away.

“He believed he might the more confidently rely upon the sloughing away of these glands, from the fact that this had already happened to the much larger mammary gland. The patient still takes Arsenicum internally; externally, to remove the offensive odor, charcoal powder is sprinkled upon the ulcer.”

He then related the following case: “A man, 76 years old, got a small ulcer on the little toe of the left foot, to which he paid no attention, but continued to walk about. All at once he got a phlebitis which extended over the whole foot, and a swelling of the inguinal glands with strong fever and delirium. On the outside of the foot an ulcer gradually formed, which extended over the whole dorsum of the foot. Fever, delirium, phlebitis and the swelling of the inguinal glands have, up to the present, disappeared and the ulcer above-mentioned has diminished in size, one-third. At first, Dr. Wurmb gave Belladonna and subsequently Arsenicum. He regards the cure of this case, as the more of a success, inasmuch as such cases, in a patient so advanced in years, are generally fatal.” D.