576 THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 



parts. Septicaemia, oedema of the glottis, or pneumonia may complicate 

 the process and cause death. 



The sublingual gland is not often the seat of inflammation. 



Chronic inflammation, leading to the formation of dense interstitial 

 tissue, sometimes occurs in the salivary glands. This may occur by 

 itself or follow an acute inflammation. Tuberculous inflammation of the 

 parotid is not infrequent. ' 



The Excretory Ducts of the salivary glands may become inflamed from 

 the presence of foreign bodies or of concretions formed in them. They 

 may become occluded from the presence of calculi or as the result of 

 inflammation, and may thus become widely dilated both in the main 

 branches and in the finer ramifications. The dilatation of Whartou 's 



FIG. 350. ENDOTHELIOMA OF THE PAROTID. 



duct to form larger and smaller cysts containing salivary fluid, sometimes 

 gives rise to very large and troublesome tumors which constitute one of 

 the forms of ranula.* 



TUMORS OF THE SALIVARY GLANDS. 



Fibromata are of occasional occurrence in the parotid. Chondromata, 

 endotheliomata, sarcomata and fibro-sarcomata, and myxomata, or more fre- 

 quently mixed tumors formed of various combinations of these, are of 

 frequent occurrence in the parotid and of occasional occurrence in the 

 submaxillary gland. These complex or mixed tumors are of more fre- 

 quent occurrence in these glands than in any other part of the body, ex- 

 cept possibly the ovary. They are sometimes rendered still more com- 

 plicated in structure by the formation of cysts, and what has been 

 regarded usually as an atypical glandular growth, lending them an ade- 

 nomatous character (Fig. 350). Earlier studies upon the mixed tumors 

 of the salivary glands led to the belief that a large part of these complex 

 growths are eudotheliomata, which are especially prone in these regions 



'Consult Meslay and Parent, Gaz. des Hopitaux, February llth, 1899, bibl. ; also 

 Wood, Bull. Univ. Penna., vol. xvi., 1903, p. 68. 



2 For recent bibliography of lesions of the salivary glands see Thorel, Lubarsch and 

 Ostertag's "Ergebnisse," Jahrg. v. for 1898, p. 221. 



