438 E. V. COWDRY 



PATHOLOGY 



The statement of Beckton ('09, p. 191) that mitochondria 

 are absent in mahgnant growths, as contrasted with benign 

 tumors was instrumental in kindhng interest in the study of 

 mitochondria in tumor cells, in spite of the fact that the assertion 

 was false, as Bensley ('10) discovered later. One is tempted 

 to entertain, as a working hypothesis, the view that mitochon- 

 dria may serve, in a measure, as indicators of the effect of 

 X-ray, radium and other therapeutic agents on tumor cells; for 

 we know that they respond very readily to injury, and, since their 

 chemical make up is entirely different from nuclear chromatin, 

 they may serve as clues to a different type of activity. But un- 

 happily the problem has attracted so little attention that we 

 have not even an accurate and comprehensive account of the 

 relations of mitochondria in tumor cells, and of the effect of 

 X ray and radium on normal cells to begin with (Beckton and 

 Russ' observations on radium need confirmation). Besides 

 this, tumors offer a new and attractive field for the study of the 

 behavior of mitochondria in histogenesis. Nobody has even 

 touched on the relation of the myofibrils, in myomata; and of 

 the connective tissue fibrils, in fibromata; to mitochondria. 



By virtue of the little that we do know of the function and 

 chemical constitution of mitochondria we naturallly seek for 

 information about them in certain types of pathological change. 



The fatty degenerations and infiltrations are of particular 

 interest. Mayer, Rathery and Schaeffer ('14, p. 608) and 

 Scott in some as yet unpublished work on the pancreas found 

 that the mitochondria agglutinate and undergo definite altera- 

 tions and he traced their relation to the genesis of the fat-like 

 droplets within the cells in experimental phosphorus poisoning. 

 Moreover, since they are soluble in chloroform and other anaes- 

 thetics, it is altogether likely that they may show interesting 

 changes in narcosis. And the well-known fact that certain 

 unknown fat-like substances are the point of action of tetanus 

 toxin in the nervous system lights the way to the study of mito- 

 chondria in tetanus. 



