SYMPTOMS.——This disorder seems often very trifling at the beginning. A hard tumour about the size of a hazle-nut, or perhaps smaller, is generally the first symptom. This will often continue for a long time without seeming to increase, or giving the patient great uneasiness; but if the constitution be hurt, or the tumour irritated by pressure, or improper treatment of any kind, it begins to extend itself towards the neighbouring parts by pushing out a kind of roots or limbs. It then gets the name of _cancer_, from a fancied resemblance between these limbs and the claws of a crab. The colour of the skin begins to change, which is first red, afterwards purple, then bluish, livid, and at last black. The patient complains of heat, with a burning, gnawing, shooting pain. The tumour is very hard, rough, and unequal, with a protuberance, or rising, in the middle; its size increases daily, and the neighbouring veins become thick, knotty, and of a blackish colour. The skin at length gives way, and a thin sharp ichor begins to flow, which corrodes the neighbouring parts till it forms a large unsightly ulcer. More occult cancers arise, and communicate with the neighbouring glands. The pain and stench become intolerable; the appetite fails; the strength is exhausted by a continual hectic fever; at last, a violent hæmorrhage, or discharge of blood, from some part of the body, with faintings, or convulsion fits, generally put an end to the miserable patient’s life. REGIMEN.——The diet ought to be light, but nourishing. All strong liquors, and high-seasoned or salted provisions, are to be avoided. The patient may take as much exercise as he can easily bear; and should use every method to divert thought, and amuse his fancy. All kinds of external injury are carefully to be guarded against, particularly of the affected part, which ought to be defended from all pressure, and even from the external air, by covering it with fur or soft flannel. MEDICINE.——This is one of those diseases for which no certain remedy is yet known. Its progress however may sometimes be retarded, and some of its most disagreeable symptoms mitigated, by proper applications. One misfortune attending the disease is, that the unhappy patient often conceals it too long. Were proper means used in due time, a cancer might often be cured; but after the disorder has arrived at a certain height, it generally sets all medicine at defiance. When a scirrhous tumour is first discovered, the patient ought to observe a proper regimen, and to take twice or thrice a-week a dose of the common purging mercurial pill. Some blood may also be let, and the part affected may be gently rubbed twice a-day with a little of the mercurial ointment, and kept warm with fur or flannel. The food must be light, and an English pint of the decoction of woods or sarsaparilla may be drank daily. I have sometimes discussed hard tumours, which had the appearance of beginning cancers, by a course of this kind.