In cancers of the face, Dr. Handel has lately, and with uncommon success, prescribed the application of the expressed juice of the Carduus tomentosus, L. the woolly-headed thistle, or friars crown. This simple remedy was formerly in great repute, and strongly recommended by Borell, Stahl, Timmermann, and other continental physicians. Dr. Handel ordered his patients to anoint the parts affected, with the fresh juice, six or eight times every day; and he found, that, in the course of a fortnight, it checked the progress of the most malignant cancer. The editor of this work has, in one instance only, observed a similar happy effect, though there always appeared to be great alleviation of pain, and an abatement of the fetid smell, emitted from cancerous ulcerations, when this liniment was duly administered. For this purpose, he made use of a soft feather, but previously added to the juice about the eighth part of rectified spirit of wine, in order to precipitate the feculent particles, and also with a view to preserve it longer in a sweet state.—Dr. Handel farther asserts, that by the application of this juice, after the necessary internal remedies had been used, he has cured the itch, scald heads in children, the thrush, violent inflammation of the eyes, inveterate ulcers of the legs, &c; especially in those constitutions which had been reduced by the use of mercurial medicines.—Notwithstanding these favourable accounts, we doubt whether a confirmed cancer will always yield to such superficial treatment; nay, it is admitted by all those foreign practitioners, that the juice of the woolly-headed thistle was of service only when applied to cancerous ulcers in the face, and produced no relief whatever, where the female breast was afflicted with that loathsome disorder. In such cases, unfortunately, all remedies hitherto discovered have been found ineffectual, unless they were applied in the earliest stage of the cancerous tumor. Thus it is affirmed by Bromfield, Collignon, Cullen, Theden, Unzer, and many other medical men of eminence, that the timely use of the belladonna, or deadly nightshade, has often dispersed glandular indurations, and large tumors of this description; but, as the internal administration of this virulent plant cannot safely be intrusted to those who are unacquainted with its nature, and the constitution of the human body, we shall only remark that it may, with equal advantage, be employed externally. For this purpose, the leaves of the deadly nightshade should be boiled in milk, to form a decoction sufficiently strong, and with which the part affected must be frequently fomented.
Another method of procuring relief in this painful complaint, has been discovered by Bassiano Carminati, an ingenious Italian, who first observed the benefit derived from the application of the gastric liquor of living animals to putrid and cancerous ulcers. Several other physicians on the Continent, and especially J. V. H. Köhler, have lately, by the test of experience, confirmed the truth of this observation. It is, therefore, much to be regretted, that this animal fluid cannot be easily procured in sufficient quantities, to produce so desirable an effect. For the gratification of our readers,
