CANCER OF THE TONGUE. ABSTRACT OF THE BRADSHANv LECTURE DELIVERED
BEFORE THE RoYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.*
BY
D'ARCY POWER, M.B.OXON., F.R.C.S.ENG.,
SURGEON TO AND LECTURER ON SURGERY AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S
HOSPITAL.
The first definite notice of cancer of the tongue is the case of Ralph Freeman, who died on March 16th, 1634, whilst serving the office of Lord Mayor of London.
The second recorded case occurred in Germany and was looked upon as a miraculous punishment for cursing the clergy. Tlhe story runs that "lately a certain baron spoke abusively to all and sundry, but kept his most venomous shafts for the clergy and for those who devoted themselves to God's service. One day a holy brother of good repute, whom he had just lashed, said: ' Your foul tongue has overlong deserved that punishment from an offended God which it will shortly receive.' The baron rode off undismayed, but a few days later a small swelling began to grow at the side of his tongue. Little by little it increased in size until it became an inoperable cancer, and the baron, penitent and confessed, died miserably afflicted."
From the middle of the seventeenth century onwards cancer of the tongue became so frequent that it was no longer necessary to invoke a miracle to account for its production.
At the present time cancer of the tongue is known to have occurred in onehorse, three cats, and one dog. All these animals were aged, and in each the cancer was of the squamous-celled variety.
Dr. Stevenson, superintendent of statistics, wrote in 1909: "The increase amongst males of deaths from cancer of the jaw, and especially of the tongue, is remarkable, and can scarcely be explained by improved diagnosis. Although cancer of the tongue presents little difficulty of diagnosis in its later stages, the recorded mortality has increased amongst males by no less than 228 % in forty-one years. Tlhe increase is entirely confined to the male sex.
(Then follows a lengthy discussion implicating syphilis and its treatment)
Syphilis cannot be considered as more than a predisposing cause of cancer of the tongue, because lingual carcinoma occurs in animals.
The cause must also be one which acts in men more than in women. The increased consumption of tobacco seems to fulfil these conditions. Cancer of the tongue did not become frequent until some years after the introduction of smoking in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.
Then he boldly makes a prediction of a rise in cases if syphilis treatment is not followed: This increase should begin about 1950, and should affect women as well as men, for syphilis is now more widely spread amongst the younger generation than it has been for many years past, and both sexes smoke much larger quantities of tobacco than ever before.
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BEFORE THE RoYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND.*
BY
D'ARCY POWER, M.B.OXON., F.R.C.S.ENG.,
SURGEON TO AND LECTURER ON SURGERY AT ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S
HOSPITAL.
The first definite notice of cancer of the tongue is the case of Ralph Freeman, who died on March 16th, 1634, whilst serving the office of Lord Mayor of London.
The second recorded case occurred in Germany and was looked upon as a miraculous punishment for cursing the clergy. Tlhe story runs that "lately a certain baron spoke abusively to all and sundry, but kept his most venomous shafts for the clergy and for those who devoted themselves to God's service. One day a holy brother of good repute, whom he had just lashed, said: ' Your foul tongue has overlong deserved that punishment from an offended God which it will shortly receive.' The baron rode off undismayed, but a few days later a small swelling began to grow at the side of his tongue. Little by little it increased in size until it became an inoperable cancer, and the baron, penitent and confessed, died miserably afflicted."
From the middle of the seventeenth century onwards cancer of the tongue became so frequent that it was no longer necessary to invoke a miracle to account for its production.
At the present time cancer of the tongue is known to have occurred in onehorse, three cats, and one dog. All these animals were aged, and in each the cancer was of the squamous-celled variety.
Dr. Stevenson, superintendent of statistics, wrote in 1909: "The increase amongst males of deaths from cancer of the jaw, and especially of the tongue, is remarkable, and can scarcely be explained by improved diagnosis. Although cancer of the tongue presents little difficulty of diagnosis in its later stages, the recorded mortality has increased amongst males by no less than 228 % in forty-one years. Tlhe increase is entirely confined to the male sex.
(Then follows a lengthy discussion implicating syphilis and its treatment)
Syphilis cannot be considered as more than a predisposing cause of cancer of the tongue, because lingual carcinoma occurs in animals.
The cause must also be one which acts in men more than in women. The increased consumption of tobacco seems to fulfil these conditions. Cancer of the tongue did not become frequent until some years after the introduction of smoking in the last quarter of the sixteenth century.
Then he boldly makes a prediction of a rise in cases if syphilis treatment is not followed: This increase should begin about 1950, and should affect women as well as men, for syphilis is now more widely spread amongst the younger generation than it has been for many years past, and both sexes smoke much larger quantities of tobacco than ever before.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=2340671&blobtype=pdf