DOI: 10.7925/drs1.ucdlib_280159
title: Cancer of the breast with Farre's tubercle of liver

description: Watercolour medical illustration depicting cancer of the breast in a woman. It has the alternative reference number 1461, 18b and P14 on the front. The Richmond Hospital Museum reference is A.c.1. The entry for this in P263/1 pg. 9 reads 'Cancer of the breast, Farre's tubercle of liver (2 drawings) Mary Tallon aet 44. Mr Adams'. The artist's name is in the bottom right corner 'J. Connolly Del.t'. There are two illustrations labelled '1 Cancer breast' and '2 With Farre's tubercle of liver'. This illustration relates to P263/148. Ref. Dublin Journal of Medical Science (1843) vol LXVI pg400-401
description: Users are advised that this item contains graphic images which may cause upset or distress.
description: Scope and content: The handwritten and typescript notes on the back read '2nd plate. Cancer of the breasts & liver. The specimens were taken from the body of a woman who had been admitted into Jervis Street Hospital, two years ago, suffering under cancer of the left breast. The gland was hard, and the ulcer itself, which was near the nipple, and of small dimensions, was very indolent. The skin covering the breast was rough and nodulated, as operation was not considered advisable, she was discharged. The same patient was lately admitted into the North Union Poorhouse, greatly altered in appearance. She was emaciated, and evidently suffering under cancerous hectic. The left breast had diminished in size; it was not painful, and was of a stony hardness. The right was scirrhous. There were severe pains of the limbs, hips and back. The right thigh broke while she was turning in bed; the hectic proceeded; epileptic fits supervened and then death ensued. When the body was examined, both the breasts were found to be scirrhous. The left was more dense and firm than usual, and no fluid or cancerous juice (as it has been called) could be expressed from it. The right was enlarged and contained fluid. Cancerous tubercles existed in the liver. In the osseous system cancerous matter was found in the femur and skull, the inner table of which always suffers the most from cancerous deposition in the diploe. Having demonstrated the several lesions, Mr Smith observed, that there are two forms of cancer of bones, one consisting of circumscribed tubercles, the other of infiltration, which may be into the compact structure as well as into the medullary tissue. Cruveilhier had remarked, that the atrophic cancer of the breast was almost confined to the aged, to persons between fifty and eighty. This remark Mr Smith could confirm with his own observations. In this description of cancer it was, that the internal organs and the bones were most usually affected. The cancerous matter was probably deposited in the veins, and venous capillaries, of which there was an instance in a case of uterine cancer delineated by Cruveilhier. In uterine cancer the bones had not been found affected. These cancerous affections had been represented in the plates of Cruveilhier, whose accurate observation nothing could escape. When a bone is infiltrated with cancerous matter, large perforations are not made in it. The compact structure is merely thinned by absorption, and then the bone may break from a very slight cause. (Museum, Richmond Hospital)'.
description: Numbering/sequence: Original reference number: 1461.