71 



peculiar characteristics in the different morbid structures. The 

 remote cause is an inappreciable modification of the blood. 



42. In regard to cancer cells, Dr. Walshe, in a work on the 

 "Nature and Treatment of Carwer" 1846, announces opinions 

 similar to those of M. Baron. The blastema or generating fluid of 

 the cells is always the same, and the evolution of cancer cells is the 

 same as that of healthy cells in ordinary nutrition. Both processes 

 are equally obscure; the formation of the enveloping cell preceding, 

 he thinks, the nucleus. The elements of cancer he shows to be 

 principally granules, nucleated cells of varied forms, free nuclei, 

 and a fibrillar substance associated with a fluid blastema. The differ- 

 ence between the caudate and the spherical cell he considers as 

 merely accidental, and depending on compression ; hence the former 

 is not to be taken as diagnostic of malignant structure; an opinion 

 also held by Vogel. A more characteristic mark of the cancer cell, 

 he thinks, is the presence of an opaque body in the wall of the cell 

 which he calls the parietal nucleus. The cell may germinate either 

 in the interior of the vessels, in the substance of their walls or in the 

 intervascular spaces. He differs from those who think they may be 

 developed in the blood itself. The cell once formed, may increase 

 either by endogenous generation, or the development of one cell 

 within another, or by external development. The blood-vessels are 

 of two kinds, one set formed u dc novo" in which the blood has an 

 independent oscillatory motion, the other by extension of adjacent 

 vessels. In the treatment of cancer, he considers the whole list of 

 anodynes as only palliative, and places his entire reliance on the use 

 of iodide of arsenic in conjunction with compression. 



43. M. Sedillot says the cancer cell may attain ten times the 

 diameter of the blood globules. It originates in an amorphous 

 liquid (blastema) in the form of nuclei (cytoblasts), which change to 

 nucleoli (small cells) and subsequently attain their full development ; 

 or in a pre-existing cell (endogenous generation) in which are seen 

 nuclei and nucleoli, which escape by dehiscence (breaking of the 

 mother cell) when they come to maturity. The other elements found 

 in cancer, are cellular and fibrous tissue, fat, granular globules, 

 melanosis, blood, pus, crystals of cholesterine, &c. Fusiform bodies, 

 or cells in course of fibrillous transformation are very common. 

 Cancer depends on an original (hereditary) or acquired predispo- 

 sition, which cannot be recognized before the appearance of the 



