4IO BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



Langhans's original sections which he was kind enough to transmit to us. Carcinoma- 

 tous struma in man has its analogy in many of the illustrations of fish tumors given. 

 Figure 63 illustrates the papillary type of carcinoma in the Salmonidse, which may 

 be compared with figure 27, plate 6, of Langhans's article, illustrating the type known 

 as struma of Geisslar. Langhans's group 6, malignant papilloma, finds its counter- 

 part in many of the fish carcinomata, papillomatous areas occurring in almost all tumors. 

 Figure 61 illustrates a tumor of almost pure papillomatous type and may be compared 

 with figure 62 from one of Prof. Langhans's sections of malignant papilloma in man and 

 illustrated by him as figure 32, plate 7, of his monograph. 



Pick was of the opinion from his material that carcinoma of the thyroid in the 

 Salmonidse was a condition superimposed upon endemic goiter and referred to the 

 occasional observation of malignant growths in man upon the basis of preexisting 

 nonmalignant struma. He suggested that endemic goiter might be distinct from, but 

 was the predisposing factor in, carcinoma of the thyroid in fish. 



There is no point at which it is possible for us to draw a line between what might 

 be called endemic goiter in the salmonoid fishes and carcinoma of the thyroid. Which- 

 ever interpretation one may desire to put upon this process, endemic goiter and carci- 

 noma of the thyroid in the Salmonidae are one and the same thing. Viewed in the light 

 of modem cancer research, it appears to us that the term carcinoma is in every respect 

 the more suitable. The first positive results obtained by us in dogs and rats must, for 

 the present, be classed as diffused parenchymatous struma; but as Bircher has already 

 produced nodular struma in his rats, and it is well known that such adenomata of the 

 thyroid develop into what is called cancer of the thyroid, it appears to us quite possible 

 that further experiments may show that in mammals experimental parenchymatous 

 and nodular struma are but the early stages of the process which is called cancer of the 

 thyroid." 



<■ At the meeting of the Freiburger medizinische Gesellschaft June 3, 1912, Prof. Aschoff demonstrated certain preparations 

 of fish and dog thyroids which had been transmitted to him by us. The report of this meeting in the Deutsche Medizinische 

 Wochenschrift, no. 25, June 20, 191 2, contains certain inaccuracies. Prof. Aschoff is reported as stating that Marine and Lenhart 

 were the first to produce struma in fish experimentally, and spoke of our work as a repetition of such experiments. In none of 

 the publications of Marine and Lenhart is such a claim made. We do not know of any investigators having had the facilities or 

 opportunity to carry out experiments of the kind detailed in this report, requiring, as they do, wild fish taken from regions free 

 from the disease and introducing them into a hatchery under conditions with proper controls to demonstrate that they have 

 acquired the disease. As this incorrect report has been quoted by Schittenhelm and Weichardt in their monograph on endemic 

 goiter in Bavaria, it seems desirable to make this statement. 



In their quotation of Prof. Aschofl's remarks these authors state that Aschoff emphasized the similarity of our tumors 

 in fish with the pathological findings in Basedow's disease in man, and that he could not support our view that the fish 

 struma was carcinoma. From the protocol of the meeting quoted it does not appear that he expressed himself so positively as 

 this. He demonstrated the similarity of the preparations with Basedow's disease in man, but this must have applied to the 

 sections of tlie thyroid enlargement in dogs, and not the fish tumors. This report quoted the fact that iodine, as shown by 

 Marine and Lenhart and confirmed by us, when added to the water, influenced the fish tumors, this fact appearing to be 

 opposed to our interpretation that the fish tumors were cancer, and it did not emphasize the fact that sublimate and arsenic 

 produced the same result, as opposed to this interpretation. 



In this connection we would state that in March, 1913. Prof. Aschoff spent a day at our institute in Buffalo, and after 

 carefully studying all of the preparations upon which this monograph is based, including the specimens of metastases, stated 

 that he now holds, in accord with us, that the tumors of the thyroid in the Salmonidx are carcinoma. 



