PRODUCTS, ADVENTITIOUS. 



137 



oval, flattened, parietal, comparatively opaque 

 body, generally speaking of large size in pro- 

 portion to its cell, and often exhibiting a 

 furrow on its surface or indentation at its 

 edge, (see fig. 6, a. of the author's work on 

 Cancer), a condition preparatory to its split- 

 ting into two. Each nucleus is supplied with 

 one, two, or, it may be, so many as four minute 

 bright corpuscles its nucleoli, which in turn 

 probably contain sub-nucleoli. When a nu- 

 cleus splits in the manner referred to, the 

 resultant bodies may be fairly regarded as sub- 

 cells, they are manifestly hollow, granular, 

 and themselves nucleated.* The diameter of 

 the nucleus varies between the-^'^ and ^QO 

 of an inch, averaging ^Vo f an inch. Fibrts 

 exist under different forms in cancer. First, 

 delicate, non-adherent broken fibrils occur in 

 most specimens. Secondly, true fibrous tissue 

 occurs in the loculus-walls of colloid, and 

 forms the stroma of scirrhus. Thirdly, exces- 

 sively delicate, almost transparent fibres exist 

 in a special variety of soft cancer, the fasciculate. 

 The unevolved blastema of a cancerous growth 

 varies in quantity, and is perfectly fluid, or 

 somewhat viscid. Particles of amorphous 

 substance, gelatinising under acetic acid, may 

 sometimes be found associated with it. The 

 vessels of cancer are either those of the natural 

 structure affected, or are actual new forma- 

 tions ; they are exceedingly abundant or very 

 few in number. The veins are frequently 

 plugged with cancerous matter, so as to pre- 

 vent them from being injected. 



(b) We are disposed to regard fat as an 

 almost essential element of cancer, (or rather 

 as a substance tending to be produced where- 

 ever cancer exists,) so constant is its appear- 

 ance, either in the oil-globule or the granule 

 forms (adipose-cells, if present, come from the 

 implicated natural tissue). When fat abounds 

 in these growths, it appears to have the effect 

 of altering the form of the cancer-cell, and 

 certainly modifies the naked-eye characters of 

 the tumour, 



(c) The contingent materials met with in 

 carcinoma are saline particles, crystalline 

 (Op. cit. fig. 11) or amorphous and calca- 

 reous, the latter in very rare instances accu- 

 mulating sufficiently to become perceptible to 

 the naked eye (calcification ;) crystals of 

 cholesterin and patches of cholesteatoma; per- 

 haps in very rare instances tuberculous depo- 

 sitf ; melanic matter ; blood fluid, clotted, 

 in the state of fibrinous haematoma, or of 

 " apoplectic cyst ;" exudation-matter with its 

 spherical and fusiform cell ; pus ; and (on 

 ulcerated surfaces) certain epizoa and epi- 

 phyta. The pseudo-tissues which may be 

 actually formed within the area of cancer (any 

 natural texture may be invested by cancer) 



* Where a system of cell-encasement, such as 

 that observed in cancer prevails, it is plain, difficulty 

 must be felt in assigning with precision the titles 

 of sub-cell, nucleus, and nucleolus. 



f We have never seen this, and we know that the 

 naked-eye aspect of tubercle may be simulated in 

 an encephaloid growth by excessive accumulation 

 of fat. 



are epithelium, the cellular, serous, fibrous, 

 and elastic tissues and blood vessel. Spicu- 

 lated osteophytes, preceded (sometimes at 

 least) by sprouting cartilage, not unfrequently 

 plunge into the substance of cancerous 

 growths from some connected part of the 

 skeleton : an isolated generation of true bony 

 structure, in a nidus of blood-blastema, within 

 a cancerous tumour, seems a possible occur- 

 rence (it is at the least, a singularly rare one) ; 

 but the possibility of such generation in actual 

 cancer-substance seems only admissible on the 

 principle that the freaks of nature are bound- 

 less in their variety. 



Built up of materials, such as these, are all 

 cancers. Encephaloid, soft, brain-like, rapid 

 in its evolution, attaining great bulk, highly vas- 

 cular, prone to bleed and fungate, is microsco- 

 pically distinguished by its deficiency in fibrous 

 stroma and the abundance of its fluid blastema 

 and its cells. Scirrhus, hard, tough, slow in 

 growth, and reaching moderate dimensions 

 only, poor in vessels, rich in fibre, differs mi- 

 croscopically from its co-species in its abun- 

 dance of fibrous stroma and the comparative 

 fewness of its cells, which mainly grow on 

 the exogenous plan. Colloid, crisp in its 

 mass, soft in the jelly-like ingredient that fills 

 its loculi (models of the spherical loculus), 

 but slightly vascular and semi-transparent, 

 stands apart microscopically from encepha- 

 loid in the well-marked fibrousness of its 

 loculus-walls, from scirrhus in the abundance 

 of its endogenously-growing cells, from both 

 in the abundance of its viscid jelly-like element. 



The chemistry of cancer is yet in its in- 

 fancy. Its organic basis is essentially protein, 

 its saline constituents those of the blood. 

 That there is a difference in chemical nature 

 between colloid anil the other species, seems 

 plain from the fact that the former retains, the 

 latter lose, their transparency in alcohol : Miil- 

 ler conjectures that colloid contains a com- 

 pound analogous to ptyalin. Microchemically 

 the cells of cancer are insoluble in cold and 

 boiling water, and are not seriously affected 

 (in respect of solution) by acetic acid : the 

 cell-wall has been said to disappear under the 

 influence of the diluted acid ; but it is simply 

 rendered pale, and may be restored by the 

 ioduretted solution of iodide of potassium, 

 which at the same time greatly deepens the 

 colour of the nucleus. 



We have already said (p. 12-i-) that a con- 

 stant and unfailing microscopical characteristic 

 of cancer has hitherto been vainly sought for ; 

 the following propositions will serve as a com- 

 mentary on, and, in some sort, a justification 

 of, the statement. (1.) Parent cells, con- 

 taining within them sub-cells having darker 

 nuclei, and these, in turn, bright nucleoli, are 

 strongly characteristic of cancer : but such 

 cells are rare in, and may be altogether absent 

 from, scirrhus ; encephaloid in some phases 

 of its growth may also be without them. 

 (2.) The shapelessly-caudate cell (see fig. 

 98) seems significant of cancer ; but it may 

 be absent from encephaloid, and it is ex- 

 cessively rare in scirrhus or colloid. (3.) A 



