14 THE TONER LECTURES. 



Turning now, from this survey of modern investigation into 

 the structure of cancer, to my own obsertations, I have endeav- 

 ored to select from the microscopical collection of the Museum 

 a few instructive specimens to serve as the basis of my remarks. 

 I have selected them from various parts of the body, for while 

 all cancerous growths have certain anatomical points in com- 

 mon, which justify us in speaking of cancer as a particular 

 form of disease, the peculiarities of individual growths, both 

 as to structure and history, are largely modified by their seat. 



The first group of illustrations I shall present are taken from 

 a case of epithelial cancer of the larynx (No. 8H9, Medical 

 Section, Army Medical Museum). This is a cauliflower growth 

 which iuA^olved the posterior part of the tongue, the epiglottis 

 and the upper part of the larynx. The patient, who was a 

 discharged soldier, sixty-three years of age, had aphonia, pain 

 in the larynx, obstructed respiration, hemorrhage from the 

 growth, and died October 1, 18G7, at the post hospital in this 

 city. Thin sections showed that long, branching, vascular 

 papillfe sprouted from the submucous connective tissue, and 

 were clothed with a luxuriant epithelium, which filled the 

 spaces between them, so that except towards the surface the 

 whole formed a solid mass. The papilljB, having branched 

 many times, appeared in profile in some parts of the sections, 

 in other parts they were cut obliquely or transversely, giving 

 rise to rounded or oval forms. Immediately next to the 

 papillae there was always a single layer of epithelial cells, 

 more or less distinctly columnar in form, bej'ond which the 

 cells were irregularly polygonal, and larger the more distant 

 they were from the columnar layer. 



"Wherever adjacent papillte were so related as to include 

 spaces, the central epithelial cells were flattened, concentrically 

 grouped, and presented striking examples of the so-called 

 "globes epidermiques " or "pearly globules" so common in 

 epithelial cancer. 



