136 



PRODUCTS, ADVENTITIOUS. 



like matter of true gelatin-yielding growths, 

 and of colloid cancer ; from both which it also 

 completely differs in structural characters. 



Miiller figures under the title of Collonema 

 a soft gelatiniform tumour of the brain (seen 

 also in the breast), composed of grey-coloured 

 cells, a few fibres and vessels, and acicular 

 cystals, soluble in boiling aether. The re- 

 actions of the growth in the brain most 

 closely corresponded to those of ptyalin (?) ; 

 that in the breast contained -a minute quantity 

 of casein. 



SUB-ORDER II. INFILTRATING GROWTHS. 



CANCER OR CARCINOMA.* 



In this sub-order we place as a genus the 

 product Carcinoma, containing three species 

 encephaloid or soft, scirrhus or hard, and 

 colloid or jelly-like, Carcinoma. "The union 

 of these three morbid structures," as we have 

 elsewhere observed, " into a distinct genus, 

 is, in truth, not a mere nosological artifice: 

 it is manifest that the formations, to which I 

 thus apply the generic term cancer, possess 

 characters entitling them to be grouped to- 

 gether, and separated from all others to 

 the generation of which the organism is ex- 

 posed. They agree anatomically, for they are 

 all composed of elements forming a combina- 

 tion without its counterpart, either in other 

 adventitious products or in the natural struc- 

 tures : they agree chemically, for they are ail 

 distinguished by the vast predominance of 

 protein-compounds in their fabric ; they agree 

 physiologically, for they all possess in them- 

 selves the power of growth and of extending 

 by infiltrating surrounding -tissues, and so 

 producing an appearance of assimilating to 

 their proper substance the most heterogene- 

 ous materials, an inherent 'tendency to de- 

 struction, and the faculty. of local reproduc- 

 tion ; they agree pathologically, for they all 

 tend to affect simultaneously or consecutively 

 various organs in the body, and produce that 

 depraved state of the constitution known as 

 the cancerous cachexia." But, on the other 

 hand, these three structures are not one and 

 the same ab initio, as is contended by some 

 writers: each may be developed in the others ; 

 but encephaloid stands apart from its co-spe- 

 cies by containing true cancer-elements in 

 greatest abundance, and in the purest and 

 most unadulterated form, scirrhus derives 

 speciality from its lavish supply of fibre, 

 colloid from an unimitated condition of gela- 

 tinousness. And, again, we maintain that the 



* As the present article has already reached a 

 considerable length, and as we have very fully 

 treated the subject of Cancer in another work, we 

 shall confine ourselves here to a statement of some 

 few facts bearing on the morbid anatomy of cancer- 

 ous growths. We are the more disposed to venture 

 upon this course, as nothing which has, to our 

 knowledge, been made public since the appearance 

 of the work in question, requires us to add to, or 

 take from, any of the doctrines or expositions of fact 

 it contains. 



three products are not mere varieties, they 

 are actual species, because each of them, as 

 just stated, has its own constant structural 

 attribute.* 



The ultimate elements met with in cancer- 

 ous Growths are of three kinds, essential, 

 almost essential, and merely contingent. 



(fi) The essential elements are granules, 

 cells, fibres, blastema, and vessels. Granules 

 exist to various amounts in all varieties of 

 cancer ; average T ^<y^o f an mcn ' m diameter, 

 and either float free, or are seated within 

 cells, or upon or between fibres. They are 

 composed of a protein-substance, or of fat. 

 The cells of cancer are spherical or imperfectly 

 caudate. The spherical variety (sometimes 

 oval or discoid-) measuring, on an average, 

 about -i-^oo of an inch, may reach only the 3^0 

 of an inch, or, on the other hand, attain the 

 diameter of -g^ of an inch, in diameter. The 

 cells of small dimensions are particularly to 

 be seen in scirrhus, where endogenous cell- 

 production is rare ; the bulky class in colloid 

 cancer, where they stand in the relation of 

 parent-cells to a contained progeny of sub- 

 cells. The thickness and transparency of the 

 cell-wall vary ; it is sometimes collapsed, 

 sometimes full and tense ; almost always 

 colourless. The caudate variety of cell exhi- 

 bits itself under two forms : first, that of an 

 irregularly branched -corpuscle, having in its 

 interior a spherical cell, itself provided in turn 

 with a nucleus or even containing nucleated 

 sub-cells '(fig. 68) ; secondly, -that of the 



Fig. 98. 



Caudate cells (from enceplialoid of the stomacti), con- 

 taining nucleated sub-cells. Length y m ih to s J th 

 .of an inch ; width ^gth to 2o'm5 th incn - Magni- 

 fied 400 dlams. (From Author's work on Cancer.') 



fusiform cell seen in sarcomatous Growths 

 (see fig. 93, p. .127), and in exudation-matter 

 undergoing development into pseudo-fibrous 

 tissue. The first form of caudate cell is scat- 

 tered in an isolated manner through the 

 growth ; the second may accumulate in fasci- 

 culated bundles, so as to simulate fibre. (See 

 fig. 93, p. 127.) The contents of cells are a cer- 

 tain fluid, granules, nuclei, and sub-cells. Gra- 

 nules are abundant in the cells, more -especially, 

 of scirrhus. The nucleus of the cancer-cell is an 



* The division into species Is objected to as defi- 

 cient in the perfection of zoological classifications. 

 Who, except the artificer of the objection, could 

 have imagined, that even an attempt was made to 

 reach such perfection ? 



