A case of male breast cancer preceded by six years' intermittent bleeding from the nipple was described in 1830 by Mercier and Stanski.* As in the succeeding reports and case studies, nipple discharge in this case was clearly caused by a lesion contained within the breast and not by ulceration due to invasion of the skin by the cancer. Velpeau46 (1854), in his book, "Traite' des maladies du sein et de la région mammaire," discussed quite fully the significance of nipple discharge in women but failed to mention it in his chapters on breast lesions in men, remarking that his observations of male breast tumors for 30 years disclosed so little difference between them and lesions of the female breast that further discussion was superfluous. Axelrod,3 writing exactly 100 years later, like Velpeau, recorded a great difference of opinion as to the importance of nipple discharge but concluded