PATHOLOGY OF TROPICAL ABSCESS. 127 



rise to purulent infiltration, and small abscesses in 

 various parts of the organ, similar to those of phlebitis 

 in other regions of the body ; but in this instance 

 always occurring in the liver, and there only, because 

 the pus globules pass directly from their respective 

 sources into the portal circulation, and wend their way 

 slowly throughout the whole of the minute structures 

 of that organ. 



The same thing may occur between the secondary 

 abscesses from phlebitis, and secondary masses of cancer. 

 A cancer of the breast, for instance, may be the source of 

 cancerous tumours in the lungs or liver, just as an inflamed 

 vein in the arm may be the source of abscesses in those 

 parts : those abscesses and secondary cancerous masses 

 will be scattered in the same manner, and immediately 

 surrounded by healthy lung or liver substance. The 

 liver and lungs are the organs in which secondary can- 

 cerous tumours, as well as the abscesses from phlebitis, 

 are most frequently met with, this is accounted for by 

 the quantity of blood which naturally flows through 

 these organs. The cancerous tumours and the abscesses 

 have in each organ the same form and locality ; and in 

 the lungs both have a great predilection for the surface. 



TROPICAL ABSCESS. The pathology of tropical abscess 

 of the liver, says Murchison, has been a subject of 

 considerable discussion, and one on which opinions 

 are still divided. The frequent co-existence in the 

 tropics of abscess of the liver with dysentery, has 

 naturally led pathologists to connect these two lesions ; 

 Annesley and others maintaining that the dysentery is 

 the result of the hepatitis, and some that the hepatitis 

 i.s the result of dysentery ; while a third class, like 



