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From: Aidan Kehoe <kehoea@parhasard.net>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Fanny Burney born (12-6-1752)
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2024 13:41:16 +0100
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 Ar an ceathrú lá déag de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Ross Clark: 

 > [...] I read a selection from her diaries and letters a few years ago, and
 > the part that stuck in my mind was an absolutely harrowing account of her
 > experience of a mastectomy, performed by a team of French surgeons, in 1811,
 > with (I think) one glass of wine as anaesthetic. "It is impossible to know
 > today whether the breast removed was indeed cancerous."

Histopathology was not then what it is now, but the way to bet is that the best
doctors in Europe (which is what the best doctors in France were at that point)
were right. It’s very easy to look at a fungating tumour and be certain of
what’s going on. The uncertainty only comes up in the early stages where
cancer is usually more treatable.

 > At any rate, she survived and lived for nearly 30 years afterwards. 
 > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Burney

-- 
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)