in the commencement, to be hard, like a substance intermediate betwixt gland and cartilage, and of an indistinct granulated structure. Soon afterwards, we perceive small abscesses or cavities in different parts, which are filled with a serous fluid, and the sides of which are hard and firm, like gristle. These enlarge gradually, and new ones form; so that were we to cut the gland, we should find it containing a great number of these cavities[113]. Those which are nearest the surface of the gland, generally enlarge most; and sometimes only one gains any considerable size. Before this bursts, its sides become more opake, and more blended with the rest of the gland, (which, where it surrounds the abscess, becomes softer, rather more vascular, and more porous or spongy than in other parts, and than it formerly was), unless it distend beyond the substance of the gland, pushing the skin outward. In this case, when it bursts, a great quantity of lymphatic matter is discharged, and the part collapses, and then exhibits the usual appearances of the cancerous ulceration: But, more frequently, we find the abscess remain altogether in the gland, and only distend the skin a little at the apex, where it points. When the abscess bursts, more or less fluid is discharged, and immediately the inner surface begins, like the orifice, to ulcerate. A fungus is produced from the sides of the abscess, which fills up the cavity, and then protrudes from the orifice. We, therefore, find, that when the cancerous abscess bursts, the orifice at first assumes the appearance of a cancer which begins in the cutis[114]; but very soon a fungus protrudes, and the ulcer gradually becomes more convex, or more like a cauliflower. [113] These are sometimes very irregular in their shape, and have their sides very thin; so that, at first sight, they appear like cavities formed by the separation of the fibres of the part. [114] That is to say, the sore is rather flabby than fungous; for cancerous ulcers which begin superficially, and without previous abscess, remain a considerable time without forming fungus; but when an abscess bursts, and the skin ulcerates in consequence, then the sore is not superficial, but communicates with the abscess, which forms fungus quickly. These abscesses, with thick sides, are characteristic of cancer, and are never found wanting in a cancerous gland. When they are not present, we may be certain, that the tumor is a different kind of schirrus. But although these be always found in the glands, and form in them a certain mark of cancer, yet they are not necessary to the existence of that disease; for the cancerous ulcer, like common ulcers, may begin without previous abscess, as we observe in the cancer of the skin, which, in nine cases out of ten, begins with excrescences like warts.