370 Chief of a Laboratory of Plant Pathology 



likewise describes the appearance of these organisms in the tissues, and we 

 find that they are practically identical with the so-called "' Plimmer's 

 bodies," with which we have been engaged. 



V. Leyden compares them to an organism, the Plasmodiophora brassicae 

 Woronin, which is described by Navachine ^^ in the Russian Archiv for 

 Pathology, 1900, vol. 9. Dr. Welch was kind enough to send me Nava- 

 chine's article, and a comparison of his illustrations with our own speci- 

 mens leaves no doubt that the organism which he has studied possesses a 

 morphological appearance scarcely distinguishable from the bodies which 

 we have found in epithelium in carcinoma. There has likewise appeared, 

 in volume 27 of the Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie, by Podwyssotzky an 

 article dealing with the same organism, which he has injected into animals 

 and which there produces mesoblastic tumors. Dr. Welch suggested that 

 you might possibly be able to put us in the way of getting some material 

 from which we could work up this side of the question. The organism, as 

 described by Navachine, produces tumor-like formations in cabbages. . . . 



Dr. Gaylord had graduated in medicine in 1893 from the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania. From 1895 to 1898 he had been an assis- 

 tant in pathology at the University of Gottingen, and in 1899 

 become professor of surgical pathology at the University of Buffalo 

 and director of the State Institute for Study of Malignant Disease. 



On April 15, 1901, at a meeting of the Johns Hopkins Medical 

 Society, Dr. Gaylord had spoken on " The Parasite of Cancer." '^* 

 Dr. Welch, then president of the Society, introduced him, and, 

 after Dr. Gaylord had presented his demonstration of materials, 

 Welch complimented him for his work by saying: 



Dr. Gaylord has brought before us something more than the mere 

 description of the so-called cell-enclosures observed in hardened specimens 

 of cancer. Of the enclosures hitherto described in preserved material the 

 only ones which present anything like a definite organization and which, 

 it seems to me, have not been altogether satisfactorily explained are the 

 bodies first accurately described by Tlioma and Sjobring, and subsequently 

 noted by most of those who have studied this subject. These bodies in 

 English and American writings are often designated without much pro- 

 priety as "" Plimmer's bodies." No conclusive evidence that these bodies, 

 still less that any other of the various enclosures, are parasites, has been 

 furnished, and it now seems evident that no further progress in the search 

 for parasites is likely to be made by the examination of hardened material 

 with our present methods. 



" See also, Dr. S. Nawaschin, Beobachtungen iiber den feineren Bau und Um- 

 wandlungen von Plasmodiophora brassicae Woron. im Laufe ihres intracellularen 

 Lebens, Flora, 86: 404, 1899. 



^' Bull. Johns Hopkins Hospital 12(126): 295-296, Sept. 1901. 



