Curative Treatment.--When we broach the question of the permanent cure of these affections, we find that great difference of opinion exists among the members of the profession as to the value of medicines. One party, perhaps a majority of the profession, believe that no medicine has any direct effect upon them, and these ignore any means of permanent relief but surgical. There is, however, a respectable number of medical men who place great reliance upon the administration of certain medicines, and, if I am not greatly mistaken, recent observation has added greatly to their number. They do not, however, wholly agree as to the therapeutic processes that should be instituted, and consequently do not employ the same kind of medicines. Some gentlemen have more confidence in what I will term the sorbefacient medicines and processes of treatment. They endeavor to institute measures that will cause the absorbents to attack and remove the neoplasm in the same way that tumefactions caused by effusions are removed. This they do by friction, pressure, and the administration of the old-fashioned sorbefacient medicines. The most popular among these are the iodides, chlorides, and bromides of mercury, potassium, sodium, calcium, and ammonium. Reports may be found in books and periodical medical literature of cures by several if not all of these articles and their combinations. The late W. L. Atlee, whose experience was very extensive, had great confidence in the action of hydrochlorate of ammonia. He administered it internally, applied it externally, and used it as vaginal injections. The iodide of potassium has long enjoyed a great reputation in causing the absorption of these and other forms of tumors. There is no professional fairness in assuming that the faith in these remedies derived from the observation of their effects or the promulgation of cures from the use of sorbefacient measures are fallacious. Some of the men arrayed in favor of the opinion that cures may be effected by a patient and long-continued administration of some one of the articles I have mentioned stand high as men of honesty, accuracy of observation, and faithfulness in their records; and therefore I give full confidence to their statements. Yet I must also say that I have not witnessed the good results which I unhesitatingly believe others have seen from the sorbefacient treatment alone.