Cancer is a disease which is, unfortunately, but too common in all parts of the world; and whether, as some have asserted, there is a higher percentage of deaths from this cause in the District of Columbia and the adjoining States than elsewhere, or whether there is a tendency of these cases to gravitate hither from other portions of the country, certain it is, that the records of our Society, as well as the vital statistics of the District, show that we have at least our full proportion of deaths from this disease. To the theories as to its cause I shall but briefly refer, leaving also the practical subject of treatment to the physician and the surgeon.
A somewhat particular study of morbid growths, extending over upwards of twenty years, and observations founded on many microscopical examinations, as well as such clinical notes as I have recorded in my