CANCEROUS TUMORS. 35 



ously in a comparatively large area instead of in a small one 

 — in the whole mammary gland for example instead of in a 

 small part of it — the size of a tumor may lead to its extirpa- 

 tion before its anatomy has become characteristic. 



But a further consideration of these interesting and impor- 

 tant questions would be foreign to my present purpose. I have 

 only wished to-night to present the subject from the anatomical 

 point of view, and if after what I have said you are left with 

 the impression that even our anatomical knowledge of the sub- 

 ject is still far from complete, you will the more readily agree 

 with me when I express the opinion that so far from this branch 

 of the inquiry having been exhausted, additional investigations 

 are urgently needed and ought b}^ all means to be encouraged. 



As for the more ambitious efforts to combine together the 

 anatomical facts and the clinical phenomena, so far as either 

 are known, and to frame a comprehensive theory which shall 

 embrace the whole, we must for the present regard them as 

 somewhat premature ; but it is a hopeful sign that even in such 

 speculations the mythical notions of specific dyscrasia? and 

 heterologous new formations are being dropped more and more 

 out of sight, and that we are learning more and more to en- 

 deavor to explain even the most aberrant phenomena of such 

 a disease as cancer bj^ the ordinarj' normal laws of develop- 

 ment and growth. 



