Antoine LOUIS (1723-1792) surgeon, inventor of the guillotine. L.A.S., Paris 26 December 1776, to M. Sabarot de la Vernière, at the Collège des Médecins in Nîmes 3 pages in-4, address with red wax seal of arms. Interesting medical letter on the treatment of cancer. There is no doubt about the nature of the ailment he is consulted about: "it is a carcinoma. - The removal of these kinds of tumours is always necessary as soon as it is possible. The seton passed behind the tumour is a new method in the art, and I would very much like to see more observations to prove its effectiveness"... He describes in detail and with clarity how to operate... And if it is not possible to operate, he advises "diverting the humour with a cautery; and purging the ulcer and the tumour with rectified wine spirit, which hardens the lymphatic oozes and prevents their putrid dissolution [?I have seen cancers that could not be removed, which were preserved for twenty years by this method, and the patients did not die from them"... He noted that "the reasons that feed the carcinomatous humours of the breast are often in the skin, and that the seton that would pass between the tumour and the pectoral muscle would be of no use in this case"... He will present his correspondent's report to the Académie de Chirurgie at the next meeting...