The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1921-11-03

many hundreds of cases of cancer,
and I am happy to assure my readers
that it is durable, provided the advice
of those who have been in constant
contact with this terrible disease is
sought and followered.
In a very lage number of cases,
especially cancer of the breast, the
following represents the conversation
which followed careful examination:
! "How long ago did you first notice
this lump in your breast?"
About a year ago." (Or it may
be even longer.) This is an astonish-
ingly frequent reply.
"Why in the world didn't you come
to me at once?"
"Why, Doctor, it didn't hurt me at
ALL" Gas if pain" meant that it
was dangerous lump, and "no pain"
that it was harmless lump! Can
Ger at the beginning is almost never
painfully
81 am sorry to tell you that I fear
you have come too late to expect
cure. Had you come the moment you
discovered this lump, l could have
removed it by a very easy and safe
operation, from which you would have
been we'll within week. But now
can promise nothing, except to do
my very best for you"
A Little Fire Should Be Put Out.
How often my heart has been
wrung by such conversation (word-
ed of course more tactfully and not
in this brusque, almost brutal, form)
with a wife and mother, who, by her
neglect to seek aid at once, has con-
demned her husband and her children
tc lose so dear wife, so cherished
mother, just when she is most need
ed! How often have l said to my
self, eff only women knew; if only
women knew"
Sometimes they would declare, u
was afraid to come, for fear you
would tell me it was cancer" To
which l have SO often replied, "f
YOU smelt smoke in your hose would
YOU sit still and wait because you
were afraid that you would find your
house afre? Why not do for your
own self what you would do for your
own house? Find out the truth at
once"
Sometimes she would say-I am al
most ashamed to admit it, but it is
true: 81 did see my doctor, and he
told me to wait and see whether it
would grow any bigger" am glad
to say this is not true of the younger
men, but only of some of the doctors
who graduated years ago and have
not kept up with our modern discov-
cries. "If you saw little fire in
your house." 1 would reply, "wduld
you wait to see if it would grow big
ger before you tried to put it out?"
If every woman who found a lump
in her breast would consult compe-
tent surgeon at once-that is to say,
within forty-eight hours, if possible,
but in any case within a week-1 am
sure that eighty-fve out of every
one hundred, and it might well be
ninety out of every one hundred,
would be cured and stay cured. So
cancer is curable-provided you con-
suit a good surgeon at once. Re
member that, when you find a lump
already formed, the disease has been
at work for weeks, and it may be
for three or four months, before
discoverable lump has been formed.
have patients on whom operated
fifteen, twenty and more years ago,
and they are still well; but they came
early, except one unhappy case Of
about twenty years ago. One breast
had been removed before l sew her.
The disease had returned on that side,
and had begun in the opposite breast.
Ioperated for the recurrent disease,
and she is we'll to-day-twenty years
later.
The complete operation is not
very long one. 1t has to-day, remem-
ber, practically no mortality, and the
recovery is complete in a week or
ten days without much suffering.
Before the days of antiseptic and
aseptic surgery, the suffering was
severe and prolonged, practically
every case became infected, and the
mortality was large. Usually the
patient was in the hospital for from
four to six weeks, or longer, and if
erysipelas or severe infection occur
red, it might be three or four months
before she was well-if, indeed, she
escaped with her life.
Another Danger Sign
The same rule to women who notice