considered as so many different diseases. [131] Schirrus has generally been enumerated as one of the terminations of inflammation; but it cannot, properly speaking, be considered as such. There are only two kinds of termination, one in death, as, for instance, gangrene; the other in recovery, which is accomplished either directly by resolution, or indirectly by suppuration. Schirrus is not produced by a perfect and complete cessation of inflammation, but by a continuance of a low degree of inflammation, which renders the state of tumefaction which attends it natural to the part, before it goes off. This state, then, is not a termination of inflammation, but a consequence of its continuance. This disease is most apt to take place in elderly people, (in so much that some consider it as peculiar to old age); because in them, parts sustain injury of their actions worst, or are less able to recover from them. Hence, two consequences follow: First, Simple schirrus is more easily produced, resolution of inflammation being more difficult, especially in parts which are, at all times, rather tedious in their recovery, when inflamed: Second, The simple schirrus is more apt to inflame, or have, what may be called, _its_ necessary actions impeded and deranged. It must, however, be remembered, that there is no age whatever exempted from this disease: I have seen it distinctly marked, and attended with a fatal event, in children of five years old[132]. [132] I have known two cases of this kind; in both the eye was affected. One boy had his eye extirpated; but a small part being left by the surgeon at the angle, the disease returned, and proved fatal. In another, the disease was in its incipient stage; but the relations would not submit to an operation. It is a controverted point, how far it is possible to produce cancer by inoculation; some maintaining, that the application of cancerous matter to a sound part will induce the disease; others, that it is altogether harmless. Analogical evidence is certainly in favour of the first opinion; because the majority of specific ulcers may be inoculated, and have been so by accident. But, at the same time, it must be admitted, that there are few well established cases of this particular point. We find, however, that, like the venereal matter, the cancerous, when absorbed, induces a disease in the lymphatic glands, of a cancerous nature. We would, therefore, be led to conclude, that if the matter be capable of inducing cancer by absorption, in a distant part, it ought likewise to be capable of producing the same disease in another person by inoculation. The same be said of the spongoid inflammation, &c.