The cancerous inflammation generally comes in slowly, in some glandular
part, which becomes rather harder, and somewhat larger[106], than it
ought to be; but the pain, for the most part, at first is trifling.
By degrees, both the hardness and swelling increase, and a pain, like
the pricking of needles, is felt in the part. This pain, after some
time, becomes more violent, darting through the whole of the gland,
and leaving a sensation, as if the part had been rudely wrung or
twisted. The tumor still remains moveable under the skin, which is
of the natural colour; but when the disease has continued a little
longer, a greater degree of inflammation takes place, and adhesions
are formed betwixt the skin and the gland, or the gland and the parts
below, at the same time that the pain becomes more continued. The
skin now becomes puckered, or drawn inward, and of a dirty or leaden
hue, which in time acquires more of the red, but is never of a bright
colour. The veins are varicose, and the tumor is, with difficulty,
moveable. When the skin becomes red, we may be able to discern a
superficial fluctuation, which proceeds from part of the gland forming
an abscess[107]. This at last bursts, and discharges a thin yellowish
matter, which frequently oozes out in very considerable quantity; the
orifice enlarges, and the sore penetrates, for a little way downward,
pretty rapidly, and the edges become hard, and overlap a small part
of the disk of the sore; but, soon after this, a fungus rises up; and
although, in some places, the ulcer may become deeper, yet its chief
progress is laterally.
[106] Although the affected gland becomes rather larger, yet the
surrounding cellular substance sometimes diminishes, and the
neighbouring glands are rather contracted, in which case the part seems
to be shrunk.
[107] This abscess sometimes, though very rarely, occupies the whole of
the gland, but oftener only a part of it; and if the gland be large,
there are sometimes several abscesses, of considerable size, which form
unconnectedly with each other, and burst separately.
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