66 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES 



menon is as follows : every proliferation depends 

 in the first place on the avidity of the cells for 

 the nutritive substances. Normally, there are 

 certain well-defined laws of distribution, which 

 guarantee the proper working of the organic 

 functions. The avidity of the tumour cells is in- 

 creased, as compared with that of the body cells. 

 The more energetically a tumour proliferates, 

 the more powerfully does it attract the nutrient 

 substances from the blood. In the case of a 

 rapidly growing tumour it may therefore very 

 easily occur, that for such cells which are under 

 very unfavourable conditions of nutrition, e.g., 

 cells inoculated and metastatically carried away, 

 there is an insufficient supply of nutrient sub- 

 stances, and that they therefore either perish 

 from atrepsy or at least are unfavourably influ- 

 enced in their growth. From this point of 

 view it is also quite evident that slowly grow- 

 ing tumours can attain far greater dimensions 

 than rapidly growing ones, since in the former 

 the consumption of nutrient matter, in spite 

 of their size, is less than in the latter, and 

 thus the entire organism is injured to a lesser 

 extent. 



* In connection with this, attention may be called to the 

 recent observations of Haaland (Berl. Klin. Wochenschr., 



